


A Brand New Day, a Whole New Life

by Wolfinshipclothing



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Blood Magic, Blood and Torture, Body Horror, Child Death, Dark Comedy, Dark Fantasy, Demon Deals, Demon Summoning, Evil Cult, Gen, Gore, Human Sacrifice, Kidnapping, Lots of OC - Freeform, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reference Overdosed, Tomckie friendship, Underage Drinking, they are my otp and i love them, we deserve to know how their friendship began
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-07-05 13:29:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15864576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfinshipclothing/pseuds/Wolfinshipclothing
Summary: It's been a month since Marco departure to Mewni, and he still lingers in Jackie's head. But when she meets a new guy in the park and he invites her to a party, she thinks its finally the time to move on.And then everything goes to Hell.Now, she is trapped, she is hurt, and she might die soon... If she doesn't escape. Without powers or skills to aid her, she will need to put her head to use and figure out a plan! The good news are she might find an ally.





	1. Back in the saddle

For as long as Jackie can remember, she has always loved to skate. It has everything to do with the risk, the adrenaline, the sense of self-improvement… But more than anything, she loves to skate because, when she is on a board, she didn’t need to think, just act. Just be.

And that’s exactly what she is about to do, and is why she is on top on a ramp, in the middle of Echo Creek Skatepark. Why the mayor decided to spend money on this was something beyond her, but hey, never look a gift horse in the mouth, right?

Under her, a bunch of teens have gathered around, either to watch what she was doing, to wait for their turn, or simply to record in their phones anything remotely interesting. They are about to lose their minds.

She took a deep breath, seized her skate, and let the gravity do the work. She slided from one end of the ramp to the other, increasing her speed at every turn. When she was fast enough, she let herself go off the ramp, jumping into the air. For a brief moment she let herself be, controlled only by the gravity.  
And that's when an image of Marco´s smiling face appeared in her mind long enough to distract her. She tried making a turnaround at the wrong moment, and her skate went to the right and she went down. To be more specific, to the hard wood ramp. Acting on instinct alone, Jackie bends her knees slide down the ramp to safety without breaking any bone. She did got rasped knees, though.

The crowd began to gossip and laugh, like they were an old ladies gang who have nothing better to do than laugh at others folks missteps. But Jackie wasn't in the mood even to feel bad. She got up, feeling her body heavy as steel. Her skate felt right next to the ramp but looked intact. She steps aside from everyone and let herself fall on a far away bench.

 _How can this be?_  She thought. It’s been over a month since Marco left for good, and she couldn’t get him out of her head. She looked at the blue sky, not a single cloud in it. It's the only sky she knows, the Earth's sky... But the same can't be said for Marco, who was now living full time on Mewni.

_How is life on Mewni? What is he even doing there?_

Jackie has never been there, but judging from what little Marco told her she could imagine it: fighting monsters, life or death risk, magic, action, adventure... and Star. The Earth was no rival to that. Jackie was no rival. The more exciting thing in her life was the skate, and now she couldn’t even do that!

After a while she realized that, if she was not going to skate, then she should go home. At least there she could vegetate a few hours on the couch and watch horror movies. That will help her stop thinking. Or well, it will make her stop thinking about Marco and it will make her think about ghost invading her house a la Paranormal Activity. Still, it would be progress.

She stands up, ready to leave, when someone stopped her.

"Hey, you okay?" said the guy. He had a real punk look, with the big mohawk and the leather jacket. Of course that was like describing a tree in the woods: a lot of kids in the park had the same look.

"Yeah, I am good," said Jackie, "It’s just pain. Could have been worse."

"No kidding. I once got a dislocated shoulder in a crash just like that one," he put a hand on his own shoulder, as if recalling the pain. "Guess I was distracted that day"

"I can relate."

She turns around, considering the chat over, but Punk Guy pressed on.

"I’m Ed, by the way," he said and sat on the bench, as a sort of invitation, "And before you ask, it’s not short for Edward or Edmund or anything like that… It’s for Edgar, you know, like the poet.

A small giggle escaped Jackie.

Ed looked down, "Its okay, everybody laughs"

"Hey, at least you are not the girl without last name," she pointed at herself: "Jackie Lynn Thomas."

She resumed her place on the bench. After chatting for a while, Ed turned out to be funny and smart. He was kind of like a stray cat you take home with you, and he had a feline smile to complete the look. The difference was he didn't have fleas. Well, probably. Jackie found she was having a good time, even if it was unexpected. Sure, Ed was nice and he obviously liked her, but the last thing in her head right now was to get a date. That’s why she surprised herself when Ed invited her to a party and she said 'yes'.

"Awesome!" shouted Ed, showing a contagious smile. "It's gonna be great. I'll be in the old abandoned mansion, one block to the river. Do you know it?

Jackie tapped her head, trying to make memory. "Oh yeah! I think i passed the place a few times. Very big, super old, about to fall down?

"That's the one! But hey, don't worry, it-it's perfectly safe. Checked the place myself. And if it turns out it's actually haunted, we'll just play Ouija and exorcise those ghost, no big deal!"

"I didn't say anything about it being 'haunted'."

"Oh... Well it's not."

Jackie laughed. This guy was a dork, big time. "You know, you don't look like the type to like haunted places or paranormal or anything."

"You know, some of us are not what we look like, Jackie," Ed said, in a tone that was supposed to be ominous, but just sounded silly. Jackie's laugh was louder this time. Yeah, he is definitely a dork. It kind of reminded her of… Well, it doesn’t matter. He is not around anymore.

She got up on her skateboard and put her helmet on. "We'll see. Maybe I’ll surprise you too.”

With that said, she leaves the place and heads home, already making plans in her head for the night. Suddenly, she felt lighter she has felt in a long time.

* * *

 "You got your phone?"

"Yep."

"Keys?"

"Yep"

"Money? Jacket? Police club?"

Jackie signed and put down the hairbrush. She wasn’t going to untangle her hair anyway.

"Daddy, I really don’t think I’ll need the club. It’s just a party," her father’s face was an iron curtain. "Also, i don't think it would fit in my purse."

Mr. Thomas's played with the weapon in his hands, and his expression softened. "It is a little big, isn't it?"

"Absolutely." Jackie thanked God that her dad had dropped the subject that easily.

"But you have the pepper spray, right?" he said, and Jackie facepalmed herself. "Sorry, sorry. It's just... I worry about you, alright? I am your dad. If i don't keep you safe, who would?"

"I know dad. But I can take care of myself," she said, and then added bitterly: "Remember, I am fifteen!

Her dad stares at her. "Yeah, my point exactly."

Jackie shook her head and smiled. She walked right into that one.

She puts a soothing hand on her dad's arm. "I promise, anything happens and I’ll call you, ok?" she said, "And if any guy tries to be to fresh, I’ll just break my board on his head."

Mr. Thomas’s nasal laugh lightened the mood.

"Please don’t do that, your uncle would kill me if I ask for a new board," pleaded Mr. Thomas. "You know he still has to pay for them even if he works at the factory, right?"

"I’ll talk to him, then. He can’t say no to me."

"True. Must be those big blue eyes of yours." 

Jackie looked at herself in her room’s mirror, and she liked what she was looking at. Blue dress, shorts, and a black jacket with a purse of the same color. Yeah, she was more than ready.

From the mirror he saw her dad looking at her with a known expression. "You look beautiful," Mr. Thomas puts a hand on his mouth. Jackie could see the moist forming in his eyes.

"Dad, please," she said, a little embarrassed and more than a little emotional too.

"I know, I know, i am not gonna get emotional over this" his hand took a course around his face. "We can go if you are ready."

Jackie nodded, and grabbed her helmet and her skate. Mr. Thomas grabbed his car keys and they both headed into the night.

Her dad’s old blue bug was small and broke down easily, but it has always taken them where they needed to go. Plus, his dad would rather sell his blood than sell his car. 

The trip was short, and they spend it chatting and laughing. Jackie couldn’t complain: for what she had hear, most kids her age don't get along with their parents, and the rest of them had parents that don’t get along with them –big difference. Suddenly, she felt really guilt for not accepting her dad’s offer of going on a small vacation. Instead, she spent all summer doing the exact same stuff than always, except with the phone in her hand, in case Marco decided to text her from Mewni.

But he didn’t.

 _To hell with him_ , thought Jackie.  _Today is a new day... New night?… Whatever._

Eventually the music outside was louder than the music of the radio, and they knew they found the place. The house was very old, probably as old as the town, all rotten wood and big windows and built to be the home of fifteen or more people, just the one that Jackie remembered. And yet, the bright lights of thousand colors, the deafening music, and the groups of teen laughing, dancing, and drinking what was surely not apple cider, it all disguised the house as new, and whoever didn't knew the place could think it was a fancy goth dance club.

"See? It’s just a bunch of teens goofing around, no big deal," said Jackie when her dad stopped the car, "worst we will do is to exorcise some ghosts if they try to spock us.

Her dad stared at her wide eyed, and Jackie could have sworn he turned a bit pale.

"I'm just kidding!"

A long buff escaped Mr. Thomas as he unclenched the steering wheel. He takes a look around, the house, the neighborhood... He looked like a hound looking for criminals and evildoers. Jackie didn't know why her dad never took the final exam to be a cop, but she always assumed he was just happier as a security guard.

"Hey, you now is there is any other kid of your class coming here?" he said.

Jackie couldn’t see any kid from her class, or even from her school. But there were only two schools in Echo Creek, so it wasn’t far-fetched to think she would see familiar faces.

"No idea. I guess I’ll know it when get in."   
  
Mr. Thomas relaxed and turns around to look at Jackie with the same look he had at the house, that happy and heartbroken face. 

"Alright, before you go in, one last thing," he searches the pocket of his jacket and puts out a small object, "I want you to have this. It's my personal bodyguard".  
He dropped the object in her daughter's hand.

Jackie stared at the small red rectangle, completely incredulous.

"A Swiss army knife?" 

"What? No, no, just a regular multi-tool. The Swiss army ones are hella expensive, and daddy is not made of money sweetie" his smile quickly turned sad," I had this one for years and... I want to pass it to you".

Jackie played with the thing. It was rather small and lightweight, with different layers for each tool. "Is this for real?"

"Yeah, try it on! It has a screwdriver, a nail cutter, a pair of scissors which are rather useless-"

Jackie pulls out one layer, and a steel knife appeared before her.

"And a knife."

"Are you serious?" said Jackie, a bit too loud. She pulls the knife down and speaks in a calmer voice. "Dad, you know there are kids my age whose parents don’t let them use kitchen knives?"

Mr. Thomas shrugged. "Well I don’t know what the kids your age does with knives. They may juggle with them for all I care," Jackie didn't know if he was being serious or not. "But I know I trust you. You didn't want anything else so have this thing, please. You probably won't use it today, but who knows! It might come in handy..."

Jackie snorted. "Yeah right. If an evil screw or a giant toenail tries to come at me, I’ll show them right!" she wielded the multi-tool as if it were a mighty sword. 

Her father pulled her for a strong hug, rustling her head in the process.

"That's more like it! Now get out of here and have fun you insolent child!"

Jackie got free of the grip. "I will try. Thanks for messing my hair!" 

She kissed his dad in the cheek and left the vehicle. She waited until the car turned around the corner to take a look at the pocket knife. Seriously, that man needed to  _chill and get real_. Or get  _less_  real. In any case, she puts the multi-tool in her short's pocket and forgets about it. She sends a text to Ed asking where he was, and when he didn't answer, she decided to join the other guests.

It was a good party, objectively speaking. People were definitely having a good time, and there were not as many adults as she thought there would be. Most of the guests were teens, and she was surprised to see most of them were what most people would call 'good-for-nothing': punks and goths arguing whose music was better, skaters doing kick flips, graffiti artists painting the walls, half naked fully tattooed guys showing his inks to whoever was interested, lazy hippies playing the guitar while looking super bored, and others that felt into multiple categories. Out of them all, Jackie was probably the most 'good-girl looking', and even she had fourteen piercings’ counting both of her ears.

She followed the music to where it was coming from, the backyard. She opened her eyes wide when she saw that skater paradise: benches, ramps and other obstacles lined the long backyard. That’s where Jackie found the Skatepark guys, enjoying the skate course or dancing to the techno music coming from the two huge amps.

Since Ed hasn’t answered yet, Jackie decided to spend the time there. She took some leaps with her skate around the course; she even aced the jump on the ramp that she tried to do that same morning, and that got here some claps from the crowd. She took it as a good chance to socialize with the other skaters, saying 'hi' to whoever wanted to make talk. Except from some small chat here and there, she never really had much contact with the other skaters, so she had some trouble associating the faces with a name, but she still enjoyed the company.  
  
After a while, and even thought it was a fresh night, the heat started to take a toll in Jackie, so she went to the drinks tables. There were many bottles of beer and other alcoholic drinks, next to some cups with dubious, bubbling liquids. A bunch of kids were drinking something from a bowl, so she took the risk and poured herself some in a cup, hoping it to be punch. It wasn’t. In fact, it was barely edible. It was as if someone had mixed silver polish with apple cider, and then took out the apples and added rat poison. Jackie coughed out the liquid back into her cup, and then throws it all in the nearest tree. She waited to see if it withered and died, but sadly, nothing happened. 

"It sucks, right?" said the girl standing next to her, before emptying the liquid of her cup in a single drink.

Jackie waited to see if she withered and died. Again, nothing happened.

She took a good look at the girl, who must have been a few years older than Jackie; she had a huge blue Mohawk and was dressed in a leather jacket that looked like it took a trip to the paper shredder, but was put together by thousands of colorful patches. It was like looking at a walking neon sign, but prettier.

Jackie realized she knew this girl… What was her name, again?

 _Was it… Joanne? Matilda?,_ she thought, trying to pick a name that matched that face _. Jenny? Erika? Emily… Samantha? SAM! That's the one!_

Then she realized it was not Sam either, so she gave up.

"It's not that bad," Jackie lied while looking at her now empty cup. The smell coming from it was sickening. "A bit of sugar would improve it."

Not-Sam gave her a quizzical look, followed by a long groan. "No girl, I mean this," she made a wide hand motion, signaling everything around, "this lame, fake, childish party. It sucks."

Jackie took a look around, trying to see what made the girl so grumpy.

"What are you talking about? It's great! The ramp is awesome. Definitely the wildest party I have been to. But not the best one, that's for sure."

Not-Sam checked her up and down. "No offense, but you don't look like you have been too many parties. Aren't you past your bedtime?"

Jackie looked down, trying to ignore how self conscious that comment made her feel. Accidentally, her eyes felt on the giant pineapple patch on Not-Sam's chest.

"Aren't you?" Jackie retorted, a bit more salty than what she wanted. She didn't want to pick a fight with this girl, especially because she looked like an extra in a Mad Max movie, pineapple in chest and everything.

Not-Sam didn’t notice any challenge in Jackie’s tone, or she simply didn’t cared. "Whatever," she throws her cup to the grass, and steps on it. After that, she took herself and her attitude away from there.

What Jackie said was true, though. Brittney Wong’s party last year was better, and not just because t it was on a freaking private bus. It was better because Marco and Star were there, and adventure always seemed to follow them, this time in the form of monsters that took over the bus and tried to kidnap the guests. Jackie was scared like never before that time, but Star and Marco took control of the situation and saved them all, Hollywood hero’s style. Around that time Magic and Monsters were a novelty, in the town and in Jackie’s life. Now, she wanted to be as far away from magic as possible.

She texted Ed, and again, no answer. She chooses to go look for him in the house.

The inside of the mansion was just as the outside: like something that crawled out of a horror movie, but got possessed by the spirits of partying teens.

Jackie wriggled across the mass of people, tiptoeing around any cup laying on the floor, and evading any butt that threatened to suck her into the dance. She finally spotted Ed in the center of the room, under a huge imperial staircase, chatting with a group of men; and she thought she saw a woman there, too. They all wore suits and had faces of stone and steel. One of them was older, and looked like a cross between a lizard and an old papyrus, definitely a face only a mother could love—if said mother were a mortician. He was talking to Ed and pointing around a lot, seemingly giving orders to him, and that triggered an alarm in Jackie’s brain. When the lizard man raised his head and made eye contact, she has to scrub her eyes because, for one second, she thought the man’s eyes were  _glowing_. When she looked again the man was looking somewhere else, and she felt tired and cold, as if she had a terrible fever. She stopped shaking when she saw Ed walking to her.

"Jackie, finally! I was scared you were gonna miss the party, “he said, showing a toothy smile.

Behind him, the group of men followed the lizard guy to a side hallway and disappeared.

Jackie then realized that Ed said something to her. "Hey dude. I did try to text you but you didn't answer."

"Oh, shoot, sorry! Got my phone in silence. You know, too much to organize and so little time..." he leaned a little closer to her. "But you are here now."

Jackie smiled, even if she didn't felt like it.

"Let's go to the top floor. There is a balcony with an amazing view."

Another alarm triggered in her brain, and it was the second one and counting. Of course, Ed hasn’t done anything to harm her, so maybe she was just overreacting. She hoped that was the case, because she decided to go with him, hugging her skate close to her chest.

They walked up the stair, the wooden floor squeaking which each step, which didn’t helped with Jackie’s growing anxiety.

"So, who were the guys you were talking to?" said Jackie, half curious and half trying to make easy chat. "You know, the guy with the, uh-

"Lizard face?" Jackie nodded. "He is the owner of this trash hole. He was ok with me setting the party here."

She stopped walking. "Thought you said this was a abandoned mansion?" 

"Well, it is. Abandoned doesn't mean it doesn't belong to anyone, it just means there is no-one dumb enough to live here," Ed made a quick step towards Jackie and his foot goes through the wooden floor, leaving a foot-shaped hole. "I didn't plan for that, but it proves my point."

Jackie can't help the laugh that escaped her. She felt her doubts melt away as Ed took her through a long hallway that ended in an immense balcony. From there, the city of Echo Creek showed itself. There was something about going to a night party that was just... eerie. Or maybe it was enough just being awake late at night to forget the day was a concept that existed. Looking at the bright city, Jackie had the illogical idea that all the people were awake, out of bed, enjoying the view. She felt a bit silly for be thinking that, but she didn’t give a care. 

"It’s so beautiful, isn't it?" she said with a sigh.

It took Jackie a moment to notice that Ed didn't hear her. He too looked lost on the view.

"You there, dude?"

Ed came out of his distraction and turned to her. "Mmh, what?"

"Nothing, just that the city is beautiful."

"Oh, yeah I guess." he went back to stare at the city. "It's something, that’s for sure.”

They stayed in a comfortable silence until Jackie noticed Ed was gripping the balcony handle a little too hard "You okay over there, man? You turned very," Jackie thought about the right word to use, "introspective suddenly."

Ed laughed. "Introspective?"

"I read dictionaries in my free time," said Jackie, making both of them laugh. That was a lie, obviously, cause nobody reads dictionaries in their free time. Well, except literature teachers, probably.

Once he stopped laughing, Ed cleaned a small tear of his eye, and went back to his neutral face. "Yeah well, I-I am okay," he said, sounding not okay. "I am just, you know, thinking about all the stuff I am missing right now.

He turned to look at Jackie, but she just shrugged.

"I mean… Look, just think about all these people, ok? " he signaled the city with a hand, "They are sleeping in their beds, they are partying outside, and they are wandering the city going fucking nowhere, "he talked as if giving a speech, as if all the people of Echo Creek could hear him. "And I just think: it’s beautiful and all, but isn’t it too simple? It’s the exact same view for everyone."

"I don’t think so, not unless you invite all Echo Creek to this balcony," said Jackie, but this time, Ed didn't laugh.

"Nah, it’s the same for everyone. Same old city, same old life," he was shaking his head in disbelief. "Rich or poor, good or bad, they all are the same, don’t they? And I-and I just think that I don’t want that, I want to see more! Experience more things, you know?

Jackie nodded. "Dude, i totally get that. Like, thirty minutes ago i was lamenting i spent all summer in the town, instead of going vacations somewhere with my old man," Jackie pondered for a moment. "Maybe to Oregon! I always wanted to go there."

"No, no, no!" Ed sudden scream made Jackie jump in her place, "You just don’t get it. What-what does Oregon have that make it different to Echo Creek? Or New York, or Paris? It’s the exact same stuff! Small people with small dreams.

His face darkened, and he talked less like a teen a more like a disturbed giant. Jackie steps back to the other side of the handle as much as she could without falling over.

"There are so many amazing things out there, away from this town, from this world. Away from this dimension even! Do you realize how much we are missing?" he raised his hands to the night’s sky, trying to reach it all. "There is stuff that regular mortals just can’t understand, they-they are too fools to see it!" he went back to look at Jackie, his eyes piercing through her. "But we are not like them, right Jackie?

Jackie realized that maybe she should be in any place but there. "Look, why don’t we go back to the party-" she made a movement towards the house, but was swiftly blocked.

"No! Don’t go back," Ed took smalls steps towards Jackie, forcing her into the balcony corner. "Not yet. Just… stay here."

Jackie shielded herself with her skate, and considered her options: obviously, throwing herself down the balcony was out, unless she wanted to end with her knees in her chest. And running away was not possible, as Ed keeps getting closer to her. And staying there with him was... yeah, it was a 'no'. That leaved her only one choice.

"You could have everything in the world," Ed extended his arms around her, cutting any way out.

When he closed his eyes and went for the kiss, she swung her skateboard and hit him right in the face, pushing him back. Her dad probably thought she was joking when she said she was gonna 'break her board on some dude's face'. But she wasn't.

The board didn't break, but Ed felt back to the other side of the balcony, almost tripping over the edge. He looked at Jackie with blood red eyes, all the while holding his face in his hands. 

He took a step towards her. "Jackie, wait-"

But he couldn't finish the sentence, because when he was close enough Jackie kicked him in the groin with enough strength to send his nuts up his throat. Ed went hard as a stone, and then felt into the ground with a pathetic squeal. She took her chance and went for the run while Ed lied on the floor. So focused she was on getting away that she didn’t notice the rumble until she was halfway down the stairs.

And that’s when she saw the chaos. The guests were screaming and running, escaping from men wearing long cloaks and deformed masks. Those that were captured were knocked out cold and dragged away down a basement door that wasn't there before. And those that resisted were beaten up merciless, by whoever traps them and his closest companions.

Jackie's heart was beating so fast it hurts. She raised her head to the end of the room and saw the exit, just at the time when a burly man in cloak grabbed her arm from behind. She didn't had the time to think so she just acted: she broke free from the man's grasp, jumped on her skate and went for door, evading the running teens that threatened to make her fall in their panicked escape, and the men in cloaks who pursuit them. She pushed everyone indistinctly, sliding blindly through the smoke and the flashing lights, her own fear driving her forward. She jumped over a knocked out guy and landed next to the front door. Finally, she could escape!

She opened the door and was greet by the cold night's wind, and the sight of a golden mask showing a mocking grin. The last thing she felt was an unbearable pain in the head, the hardness of the floor, and a crushing darkness all around her.


	2. From bad to worse

Jackie woke up to a world of stone-cold cement and heartbreaking crying. She felt as if her brain has been put on top speed roulette wheel. She blinked repeatedly, trying to recover the capacity of rational thinking. The first thing she thought was that she had a mind clouding headache, and that she wanted to get the hell outta there and go home. The second thing she thought was that she had no idea where 'there' was.

She took a look around and noticed she was in some kind of basement. A single dying light bulb illuminated the room, touching all the bodies. Only after a moment she realized they were the other kids from the party. She tried to scream and that’s when she noticed the cloth gag in her mouth. When she tried to turn around, she realized they had tied her hands with rope. She wanted to get up but every time she tried to, another body bumped against her, probably trying the same thing, concluding in both of them falling to the hard floor. 

A loud boom startled everyone. Jackie turned around on her butt to the direction of the noise: a big metal door –which appeared to be the only exit in the room, has opened, and two men in long cloaks came in. They were dragging a girl by the hair, and with a single look Jackie knew who she was. They threw Not-Sam on the floor, next to her. She was unconscious, but she still moved in dreams.

Now that she was not busy running for her life, Jackie examined the men with detail. They wore long gold and black cloaks and a golden mask that, come to think of it, seemed to represent animals. It was as if someone described, to a crazy blind artist, how animals were supposed to look and ordered him to make them into masks.

Both men leaned heavily against the wall, at each side of the iron door.

“Man, I am completely worn out,” said one of them, who wore a mask of a two-headed cat, “this urchin made me chase her for half an hour. Finally caught her in the bathroom. Meanwhile, you were who-knows-where, scratching your b-“

“Hey, I was busy,” said the other one. He was wearing an ape mask.

Cat turned his head to stare at his partner. “Oh, you were busy uh? What were you doing?”

Ape made confusing hand gestures. “I was supervising you.”

“Oh! You were supervising me!”

“Yep.”

“You were supervising me from far away, without actually looking at me.”

“…yep.”

Cat crossed his arms and looked away, like an offended child. “Well, I hope I did a stupendous job."

Ape took a moment to get a cigarette out of his cloak. He must have had a hole where his mouth was, because he didn’t have trouble smoking with the mask on.

“Oh yeah, you were amazing,” said Ape, exhaling a cloud of smoke, “you gonna be Cultist of the Month, you’ll see.”

Cat buffed, and Jackie could have swear he saw him rolling his eyes.

They were quiet after that. Jackie didn’t even bothered to scream, because they seemed impervious to the cries of the other kids. Every time one of the prisoners got up, Cat and Ape yelled at them to 'get on the floor or else!' She didn't wanted to know what 'else' was.

“Cursed teens, I hate them,” said Cat after a while, “They smell like sweat and cheap soap.”

Ape nodded. “If you think its crowded in here, don’t go to the south room. It’s busting.”

Jackie tilted her head when she heard that.

"Why do we want all these punks anyway?” asked Cat.

“For the ritual,” said Ape, “the reason why we are here. Remember?”

Cat scanned the room. “Isn't this, like, overkill? Half the town's children must be here."

“Yeah well… We’ll probably use just the ones here, and save the other in case it fails.”

Cat nodded, and went back to lean against the wall. Then he jumped, as if someone had pinched his butt. “If what fails?” 

“The ritual.”

Cat got in front of his partner. “It can fail?!”

Ape scratched the side of his face… Mask. He scratched the side of his mask.

“This isn’t mathematics, you know? It’s not exact. And what if it doesn't work up at first? We have a whole room of kids to try again. And well, if everything goes to Hell we just… “ He made a weird hand motion that Jackie interpreted as 'leave' “You got it? Chill out.”

Cat nodded, and returned to his place against the wall.

 _So they got the rest of the party guests in another room_ , thought Jackie. She got an answer, but about a thousand more questions. Especially concerning that 'ritual'. She had no idea what it was, but she knew she didn't want to be here to find it out. 

Before she could do anything, however, there was a noise like a supermarket speaker. A gruff voice resonated everywhere at once:

_“Brothers and sisters. It is time for our reward. Bring forth the Cattle!”_

Ape and Cat became soldiers upon hearing this.

“It’s Showtime,” Ape threw his cigarette on the floor.

The door opened with a blast, and more masked men came in, one after another, filling the already bursting room. They surrounded the kids, pushing and dragging them until they made a line in front of the door, of which Jackie was the lead. The men guided them through narrow hallways made of hard concrete floor and brick walls, lighted only by flickering light bulbs. Ape was at front, giving orders, and Cat was behind him with a muscular guard at his side. Behind them was Jackie, and behind her, Not-Sam, who had been forcefully awaken. The crowded corridor was full of the crying of the hostages and the angry screams of the men, giving orders of 'shut up!' and 'move faster!'

They walked for what seemed like hours, until they reached an immense circular room, lightened by dozens of torches. In the center there were five men, dressed in tunics with intricate designs that were hard to make out. They were standing in what looked like a circle full of strange drawings. On the outside of this circle, there were even more masked men, dressed in regular cloaks, all armed with swords. 

“Place them in the Holy Circle. Assume your positions, everyone”, said one of the men in the center, who was wearing a mask of a laughing person. Jackie recognized him: it was the one that knocked her senseless! And the voice of the speakers. He must be the one 'running the show'. 

There were screams and protests as the men dragged everyone around the circle. Jackie was lost at what to do. Scared of making a misstep, she let herself be and waited for… Anything. Any signal of what she should do. Or at least for her heart to stop fricking pounding in her chest so she could think!

A particularly loud yell was heard when a boy broke free and ran to the exit, leaving his captors behind. Jackie took that as the signal and tried to follow him, only to be held in place by someone behind her. She prayed that the boy would make it. He could escape and get help!

He made a run to the exit, only to be intercepted by two guards when he had reached the door. They lifted him by the shoulders as if he were weightless. They threw him into the ground and brutally kicked him. Jackie kept her eyes on the floor the whole time. When they were done with the boy, they threw him in the center of the circle. His face was now an unrecognizable red lump, and he was spitting blood from his mouth. Jackie almost threw up at the sight.

The men didn't' look moved with what just happened. They walked with rehearsed steps, guiding all the kids around the circle on the floor. Jackie was at the edge of her rationality. Everywhere she looked she saw an armed guard, a kid crying or being beat up; all around all she heard was the mocking laughter of their captors. She soon gave in to the panic and joined the chorus of heartbreaking screams.

“Silence!” shouted the Leader. The other four men had leaved the circle, but he stayed inside.

“Today is the day, my brothers,” he proceeded. “Today, the sacrifices we made will be returned, and we shall receive our reward!”

All of his subordinates shouted and cheered.

The leader raised his hands, in a priest like gesture. “Today, we will dominate powers that mortal men can only dream about!”

They cheered even more, getting ecstatic. 

The Leader made a pause and scanned the faces of everyone in the room. “But for that to happen, more sacrifices are demanded. Not just the sacrifices made by others, but by us too. We must let go of our inhibitions, our moral chains, and reach for the future.”

He put his hand on the shoulder of the boy, who could barely raise his head.

“Fear not children,” he said, this time talking to him, and to the other kids. To Jackie. He almost sounded like a understanding father. “Know that you will be part of something greater. Blood is power, my children. And yours will be spilled for a greater purpose! You shall rejoice! Destiny waits for us all!”

The crowd erupted both in blissful screams and in deafening crying, depending on what side of the circle they were in.

The man behind Jackie moved uneasy. “Bah! That’ so fake,” Jackie recognized his voice as Cat's, “when i was a car salesman, my boss did speeches like that all the time… With less religion in them, but same style.”

Jackie wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or to himself, but that sparked a tiny hope in her.

“Let me go!” she shouted, or tried to. The gag in her mouth muffling every sound she made. “Help me, please! He is insane!” Cat shook his head and tightened his grip around Jackie.

“Commence the chants!” shouted the Leader.

Silence. The voices slowly rose up, in a strange reverberating song. Even if Jackie were not mind numbingly scared, she still wouldn’t have understand any of that religious chorus. The room seemed to spin and tremble, filled with unnatural whispers. Jackie saw a faint light, just at the moment the Leader pulled out a long Staff from behind his back. It looked like a giant lamp. He moved it around like an orchestra conductor. She had the strange idea that the voices seemed to spin around that Staff.

“Begin the sacrifices!” The room exploded in crying when the Leader produced a sword with his free hand and stabbed the boy. He went still on the floor, his blood spilling on the chalk circle. But the chalk was not erased; instead, it served as a pattern for the blood to flow around.

One by one, all the kids felt, their corpses pilling on the floor; their blood adding to the circle. The ones who were watching the scene struggled in vain, and eventually they went silent too. Soon it was Jackie's turn.

“I am sorry kid,” said Cat, with a quiver in his voice that he didn’t have before. “It’s over.”

Jackie felt the tip of the blade on her lower back. She closed her eyes; a cold acceptance overcoming her fear.

“Enough!” shouted the leader.

The chants stopped. The blade receded. Both Jackie and Cat sighed, for completely different reasons. She was safe, as were the other ten kids after her, including Not-Sam. For now.

The circle on the floor, now colored with a repulsive red, has began to cast a ring of light that reached the ceiling. Just like nothing has happened, the leader emerges from the circle; his staff now shining a golden light that made Jackie felt sick.

“The time has come, brother and sisters.”

When the Leader spoke again it was not with words, but rather with static-like sound that could almost be seen, and threatened to melt your brain. The flames from the torches danced and grew in size, and finally they went off with a bang. The light of the circle casted red shadows on the faces of the kids and the men alike, while the staff’s light was reflected on the Leader’s mask. Nobody dared to speak. Then a blinding flare illuminated the room. A pillar of fire erupted in the center of the circle. It faded out quickly, and in its place appeared what took Jackie a few seconds to recognize.

It was a bathtub. A bathtub has just appeared in the middle of the room.

To make things worse, there was someone inside! His body was covered by the curtain, but his silhouette was seen taking a shower with no cares in the world. And he was singing.

“Dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen!” his voice was masculine and deep, if a little out of tone.

For a moment, Jackie wondered if maybe someone had spiked the punch, and now she was actually laying unconscious on the backyard floor, hallucinating like crazy, with the paramedics on their way.

“What the fuck…” said Cat, who was probably thinking the same thing.

The guy stopped singing. He closed the shower that somehow was still throwing water. The curtain was moved, to reveal a teenage boy with violet skin, three eyes, and big horns. And he was in his birthday suit. He screamed, as did all of the kids and men present, Jackie and Cat included.

“What in the Void’s name is going on here?!” he yelled. “Who the hell are you-“

He laid his eyes on the leader and grimaced.

“You again Sage?! That’s it! This is the last time you do this to me! You will pay! And the rest of you…“he looked around the room, his burning gaze making grown men recoil like scared bunnies; “You bought all the tickets. You gonna see what’s good!”

After that he disappeared in a flash of fire, bathtub and everything. The fire from the torches started to reignite, as if the lights were back after a blackout. A brutal silence invaded the room.

“Uh…” said indecisive one of the men in fancy tunics, “Was-was that supposed to happen?”

“Oh yes, he always take a shower at this hour,” said the leader, the so-called Sage.

The room turned into a movie theater, with the men whispering to each other, asking 'When does the show start?' Jackie, on the other hand, clung to the hope that this all was nothing but nightmare. Everyone jumped when another pillar of fire erupted, and the boy came out of the flames, now fully dressed.

“Now you will see what you get,” said the demon boy, taking a few steps towards Sage, “You think it’s funny to be summoned when you are on your own business? You think it’s-“

He stepped on blood. When he looked down, he found the lifeless gaze of the first victim. The demon boy's eyes turned into volcanoes.

“How. Dare. You.” he said with a trembling voice. When he spoke again, it was as if he were a thousand people in one.

“ **How dare you!** " the fire from the torches exploded, as did his eyes. "Is your life so worthless that you need to-to… Kill other people in my name?!” he talked through grinned teeth; his anger was palpable around the room. **“Well, you won’t do this ever again!”**

The demon immolated itself, throwing fire above and around him like fireworks, turning the room into an oven. He elevates himself into the air, as if his own rage was controlling him now. His rabid screams echoed inside Jackie’s mind, inside everyone’s brain. He was tearing them apart from the inside! The men stayed in their places, shaking but paralyzed by fear. Sage however, exuded an aura of calmness that was unsettling.

“ **Any last words you want to babble?** ” shouted the demon, breaking the air with the clarity of his voice.

“A clarification, actually,” said Sage, unfazed, “You see, these sacrifices are not for you, Master Lucitor.”

With this said he raised his staff in the air and then lets it fall on the ground, inside the circle. A storm was released: thunder, lightning and howling wind. Jackie stared with horror how the electricity brought life to the still-warm blood, raising it to the ceiling in the form of tendrils. Before the demon boy realized what was happening, a thin blood thread tangled itself around his arm. He tried to pull it away, but a second one was added, and then another and another, and soon enough he was turned into a marionette. The electricity from the staff flowed through the blood tendrils, directly to his body. His howls of pain made the fire from the torches burn brighter and explode, releasing fire balls that held on to anything they could find. Including the cloaks of the men around. The victims of the fire tried to strip themselves out of their robes, roll on the floor, anything to save them from turning into ashes.

Sage and the other men in tunics yelled orders around, trying to regain control; but it was all lost when a fire ball landed on one of them, consuming him in flames before anyone could act. That was it: the status quo was broken and chaos took over.

This awoke something inside Jackie, a little thing called “logical thinking”, which has been drowning in panic as soon as three seconds ago.

She reached two conclusions: First, that somehow, the demon boy that was three meters in the air howling in pain looked familiar to her.

And second, that she needed escape. RIGHT NOW.

She used the chaos in her favor, and when Cat was distracted she elbowed him in the ribs. When he hunched over in pain, Jackie got free from his grasp. She had to thank her dad for the self-defense lessons as soon as she gets out. She saw the other kids had the same idea and were now freeing themselves from their captors and were running away while the captors chased them. It was like a perverse game of cat and mouse.

And speaking of which, Cat recovered his poise and was running to Jackie, yelling at her to 'stay quiet' She had no intention of following that order. She ran away, blindly at first, but when she saw the door she went for it. It was just like what happened at the party: she was escaping, moving like a snake, evading any person or pillar of fire that stood on her way. And just like before, she was stopped when she reached the exit.

“Gotcha!” said Cat when he laid his hands on her, “You better not-AHH!“

He squealed in pain and felt on the floor. Right in front of Jackie was Not-Sam, looking like a bloody and dirty angel.

 _I really need to ask this girl her name_ , Jackie thought.

She tilted her head to the door and Not-Sam nodded. They bashed the wooden door with all their strength until it gave in and opened up, showing a dark hallway. Jackie gets out first, but when she looked back she saw Not-Sam being held by two guards. Panic threatened to take over Jackie once again. She couldn’t leave Not-Sam there, in that literal Hell! She made a step inside, but when a guard cut her road, she was paralyzed. All the mad courage that had possessed her seemed to evaporate in a second. Her heart was telling her, 'get inside there, you can help them!'. And her brain replied 'no, you cant'.

Jackie turned around and ran. She ignored the screams of pain of the boy, the sound of blazing flames, all the literal Hell that was behind her, and she ran into the darkness.


	3. One good plan

Jackie ran through the dark hallways, turning around every corner, trying to confuse her persecutors. Just like a rat. A rat that abandoned Not-Sam, and the other kids, and that… demon boy-person-whatever. And alright, these guys are not her friends and she barely knows them, but they needed help. But Jackie couldn’t bring herself to turn back, so she just kept going forward, pushing it all behind

She ran until she could barely breath, then she searched for a place to hide and rest. She opened a nearby door that lead to a small closet full of cleaning supplies. She got inside and waited, and when she didn’t hear any footsteps outside, she leaned against the wall and let her body fall to the floor.

How long has she been running? She couldn’t tell. She just knew she was exhausted and that her tied up wrist were killing her. She tried to loose the knot, but eventually gave up on that idea.  And that’s when she remembered the pocket knife her dad gave her. She was distracted back then and had put it in her pocket, not her purse. She had to do some weird motions, but she managed to get the multi-tool into her hands. That red rectangle was the most beautiful sight in the world for her.

However, freeing her hands was not that easy, and she dropped the knife many times. But that gave her an idea: with no little trouble, she used her tied hands to pull the cloth out of her mouth, and then she placed the pocket knife between her teeth. It was infuriatingly difficult, especially because the multi-tool’s knife was as sharp as a butter knife, but eventually it began to cut the cloth. When she was at it, her mind started to wander.

She thought of the other kids, their bodies cooling down as they bled to death on the floor. She could have been one of them; the coldness of the blade was fresh in her mind. It was evident that, even if she could get out of the ropes, she was still trapped. She didn’t have her phone, she couldn’t call for help, which she should have done before, but instead she had run, hoping to save herself instead of doing the most reasonable thing. And now it was late; she was trapped in a labyrinth full of armed men, who were most surely looking for her, and it was only matter of time before they found her and cut her up like an animal.

By the time she was done cutting the rope, the tears were rolling down her face once again.

And what if she did escape? What about the others? Leaving them behind has been hard enough, and yet she has done it anyway. But the idea of abandon them here while she escaped was something that made her stomach churn. Her thought wandered to Star and Marco once again. They could have fixed this mess so easily! Star could have spun her wand and send everyone flying or turned them into sparkles. Marco would have escaped already, beating everyone with his karate chops. All that Jackie had was a butter knife. And even if she had a fricking sword, she wouldn’t be brave enough to use it!

Marco and Star were heroes. She was just Jackie.

“I can’t do this,” she said to the darkness.

Every second that she spent in the dark robbed her of her already thin courage. She took a few deep breaths, following the meditations tips she had read on the internet. She had to calm herself, she had to _think_. After a few minutes, she had to accept the painful truth: she couldn’t save the others. Not alone at least.

No, the best course of action was to get the hell outta there and get help. If she could get out the police could come here and put an end to this madness.It was an idea more than a plan, but it was all she had. Se dried her tears with the side of her dress, trying not to touch the place where Sage had punched her. Cause boy, it hurt like crazy.

She peeked outside the room, just at the time two guards passed by. They went in the opposite direction from where she had come from, so she followed them at a shadow's speed. They reached a well lighted room and went inside. The exchanged a few words with whoever was inside and then came out and proceeded their path. She followed them a few steps until she heard a familiar voice coming from the room.

“Please, calm down brothers. Besides the small setbacks, I think everything is going as smoothly as possible,” said Sage, in a commanding voice that seemed to be his only one.

Jackie didn’t dare to take a peek inside, but she leaned against the wall and listened closely.

“Small setbacks?!” yelled a woman, “Ten members are dead, Sage! Brother Swann amongst them… Now there are only four of us in the Council-“

“If you gonna start whining every time someone bites the dust, I have no idea how you came this far in this organization,” said a man.

“Working like mad, that’s how! I didn’t buy my seat in the Council, unlike others-“

“I invested a ton of money in this venture, Sister Hera! Money from _my_ pocket, may I add. I didn’t hear your nagging when I bought these fancy new tunics! Or when I renovate this horror house head to bottom! Or when I renovated Brother Aristotle’s ancient library!”

“We all appreciate your donations, Brother Phobos,” interrupted Sage, but was ignored. It was like a teacher trying to put order into three years old toddlers.

“Please Phobos, leave me out of this,“ said another man, who Jackie guessed was Brother Aristotle, “I am on this just because it-its family business.”

“Well that’s fantastic for you, Pointdexter! It’s not like a wimpy nerd like you could have got here by merits alone,” said Phobos.

“ _He_ is the wimp?” said Hera, “Now that’s just rich! Last week it was _you_ who was shaking like jelly when we sacrificed that goat!”

“I wasn’t shaking!” yelled Phobos.

“You missed the poor animal three times!”

“I… I had the flu!”

“The flu? What does the flu have to do with it?”

“...Fever! That’s right, I was feverish, and that’s why I missed so many times.”

“...You are scared of blood, aren't you?”

“Are you fucking with me? Of course not!”

“I did saw you a little shaky today,” added Aristotle.

“You are a petulant son of a...“ Said Phobos, “I saw _you_ bent over and praying in the corner. Praying to God, even! It was so embarrassing.”

“I would never-“

“Yes you did!”

“ _Shut up!_ ” yelled Sage, his voice reverberating in the room and drilling the heads of everyone, Jackie included.

When he spoke again, it was in a calm and soothing voice.

“My friends, I know we lost many today. But we are too close to give up now,” his voice changed and took a weird, almost friendly tone, “When I was asked by our Elders to take the lead of the Echo Creek branch, I accepted immediately. Because it was my duty to our Organization, of course. But also for personal gain.”

He waited, but nobody spoke.

“What, should I deny it? What would be the point? That's why we are here, isn't it? We all put a little bit of ourselves into this venture: Our funds, our knowledge, our resources and talents. And we want nothing more than our fair reward. That reward its right there, in the Red Room, waiting for us to take it! Now, I don’t know you, but I have no intention of letting all my hard work go to the toilet just for some trouble in the summoning and a little lousy communication. I’ll keep going to the end, and I am going to receive what is rightfully mine.”

Sage let his words do the job, turning everybody’s brain into soft malleable pudding. 

“It’s just…”said Aristotle, “Nobody to-told me we were going kidnap a-a-a kid.

“He is not a kid,” said Phobos.

“Sorry, a teenager.”

“He is a demon! He would kill you if he could.”

“Oh, he will kill us when he gets out.”

“He will not get out,“ said Sage, “The Blood Magic we used will contain his powers, and if he tries to use them, it will kill him. It will be like a building imploding.”

“If somebody finds out Tom Lucitor is here-“

“Nobody will know. Not in time. Give me a few days, a week tops with him and he will cooperate,“ he said, and then added in a low voice, “Everybody breaks eventually.”

They had to give the reason to Sage, and soon enough the calm returned. Meanwhile, Jackie was thinking. Lucitor. That name had awoken a memory inside her brain. Three eyes and horns. She remembered seeing that same sight last year, when Star was still studying in school and a boy came by to talk to her. Something about a ball or something. When she had asked Star about who the boy was, he said it was his ex demon boyfriend. And his name was…

Tom Lucitor. The same boy that was now trapped in the other room, waiting to be tortured.

 _Well, people do say that life spins around,_ thought Jackie. A shadow of an idea was showing his face on her mind.

“I will go check the prisoner,” said Sage after a while, “retreat everyone to the Mess Hall and wait for orders.”

 She retreated to the closest hallway when she heard footsteps coming in her direction. When she saw Sage’s black boots pass by, her brain worked at a speed she only didn't thought possible. She made a quick choice, and when Sage form disappeared in the shadows of the corridor, she went behind him, close enough follow him by the sound of his walking.

She started to feel excited in a strange and wrong way. She finally had a plan! Well, she had a plan before, but now she had a better plan. Or not. Actually, if Jackie was honest, it was a terrible and improvised plan, but it was hers, and that filled her with a sense of hope that made her feel euphoric. And anyway, it was still better than her last plan. And even if it wasn't, Jackie wasn't shaking anymore, and that was a progress.

The trip to the Red Room felt both longer and shorter, now that Jackie was not concerned for her life. She paid attention to her surroundings, finding new rooms and hallways she hasn’t seen been. She saw a barracks full of beds, a room with a large chemistry set in it, a library, and even a bathroom with a few urinals, a single toilet, and a bucket. No sink. Jackie realized most cloaked guys must be men, and she preferred not to think what the bucket was for. Still, no sight of the other kids or her stolen possessions.

It was hard to believe, but Jackie was feeling just the same way she feels on a skate. It was the same calm yet alert mindset. If this was her own courage showing up, or if it was a product of the emotional shock she was most certainty going through, it didn’t mattered. She wasn’t shaking anymore, and that was progress.

Soon she found herself in the same corridor that led to the Red Room. Sage went beyond the doors and Jackie waited. A few seconds later a bunch of heavily armed guards left the room. She came close to the door and opened it, just a bit, to see and listen what was happening inside...

* * *

Tom detected Sage’s smell even before he saw him. It was a peculiar scent he had, like battery acid, old man’s soap and fire. It was rather disgusting. Sage asked the guards to leave, which was good for Tom because they have been watching him non-stop for minutes now and were getting on his nerves.

“Greetings, Master Lucitor,” said Sage once they were alone.

“Yeah, yeah, spare me the theatre and the sass, please. We are way beyond that point,“ said Tom from his place in the centre of the room. “Nice basement, by the way. The spiders and the-the odor of death really tied the place together.”

Tom knew that psychopath was smiling behind that mask. Its was he does, he plays with people’s mind until they are reduced to mashed potatoes he can play with. But Tom knows his tricks, and he knows how to fight back. He would have to play Sage.

“What happened with the other lair? You know, the one in the woods.” Tom walked -or more like 'crawled'- to the edge of the circle.

“Oh, we had to move out,” said Sage with informal air. “Someone squealed to the cops about what we were doing. The whole ‘cult’ thing wasn’t much of a big deal, but it turns out that clearing private property of some CEO. And the cops _had_ to inform him of what we were doing…” Tom payed attention to the Staff. It's top was an eagle statue, made of gold, apparently. On it's beak there was a blue and gold crystal; the light coming from it made Tom's eyes water. Whatever it was, Tom had to put his hands around it and break it to pieces!

"They had a point, though," said Tom, "If it were me, I-I wouldn’t like to have Opera singers in ugly dresses doing sacrifices in my backyard.”

“Ah, you like the tunics,” Sage raised the edge of a tunic, showing its complex embroidery, “A gift. From the newest member of the Council. Pretty loaded guy, I would say.”

Tom laughed without any humor. “Nice bunch of bootlickers you got here.”

“They serve their purpose."

Sage walked in Tom's direction, closer to the circle. Tom readied his claws.

“A-and the kids you sacrificed? They served their purpose too?”

“Precisely,” Sage was almost at Tom’s reach, but he keeps circling around him. “It’s a shame, actually. A few of them would have been good acolytes.”

Sage was trying to piss out Tom, so he focused on his breathing exercises. One, two, three...

“But you know it’s not gonna work, right?” Tom said and Sage stopped in his place, in front of him, almost at reach. “Any moment now, I am gonna break free from this prison and walk out like nothing happened! And there is nothing you can do to prevent that.”

Tom’s smile reflected in the shining metal of Sage mask.

“Maybe you’ll walk out of this,” said Sage, “but it won’t be as soon as you think.”

Tom laughed as loudly and annoying as he could. “Oh is that what you think? Consider this: I am demon, all right? Time is meaningless to me! But hey, if you spare me the trouble of getting out, maybe I will cut you a deal.”

 _That's gonna do it, i got him!_  thought Tom, his own anger rising. 

“I think I’ll pass,” Sage turned his face away.

“Oh, come on! Let me tell you something-“

“No, let ME tell you something,” Sage turned to face Tom. His voice was filled with poison, enough to throw Tom out of balance. “All this? All that has happened in this place? It’s all your fault.”

“Me?! I didn’t ask you to-“

His voice was cut by the thunder. Sage had let the Staff hit the floor, releasing a wave of lightening. The circle seemed to amplify the power of the staff; all the broken lives added to the energy. The power was so overbearing it threatened to break Tom apart. When Sage raised the Staff off the floor and the attack ceased, Tom lost it.

“You son of a bitch!” Tom jumped forward, intended to tear Sage’s skin off. But the old man took a step back... And he was too far. Tom reached the end of the circle and stopped, the blood chains holding him in place. He unleashed his power and regretted it immediately: the energy came back to him amplified, crushing him all around. It felt like his bones were breaking and his skin was being teared apart at the same time. He felt on the floor; his whole body numb and sore. 

“Why did you… How?” 

Sage shook his head, and spoke in a disappointed parent’s voice. “You caused it on yourself, kid. We already had a deal, in case you don’t remember. My soul for my life. A New One. I _served_ you all that time, if you can call that ‘serve’. And when I demanded my reward what did you do? You hunted me down!

“What reward?! What are you babbling about?! I carried out our terms to the-“

The Staff felt inside the circle once more. The power increased each time, increasing Tom’s torture, and clouding his mind to any thought that wasn’t ‘ _decapitate that bastard’_.

“Nobody knows you are here,” Sage raised the staff and talked down to Tom’s trembling form on the floor. “And even if the whole Underworld knew, they just don’t care about you. And Mommy and Daddy can’t summon you home. They can’t even reach to you while you are inside the circle; you are in a blind spot! Face it kid, you are alone.”

Sage hit Tom's head with the base of the Staff, forcing the boy to look up to him. “But there is good news: to end it all, you just have to give me what I deserve. Easy, right?”

“I didn’t promise anything,“ said Tom in a painful breath, “You gonna get nothing from me!”

“Oh? Well, you should say that to the kids that died to make this circle,” said Sage, “Oh wait…”

“I didn’t want that to happen!”

Sage laughed, but it was a skeptical laugh. “You ‘didn’t want’?  Oh Tom, are you really that innocent? You really believed you could betray me and nothing would happen? You think you can step on people, and nothing will happen? No. All this innocent blood is in _your_ hands. Literally, cause you are sitting on it,” there was a malice in Sage’s voice that made Tom want to throw up. “And the time it takes for you to give up, more lives will be sacrificed to keep you trapped. Think about it.”

Sage turned around to leave. “Oh, and i see what you were trying to do back there. Looks like you learned something. Maybe in forty years you will best me. Assuming, of course, you live that long.”

Tom had to sit there and watch Sage walk to the door, as is nothing had happened. He yelled any insult and curse he could come by, no matter how obscure or perverse it was, until Sage disappeared through the door and Tom felt on the floor, defeated. But the worst part was that he was right. He didn't do anything, and yet he was the reason these kids were taken and butchered! And maybe other demons would just shrug and say ‘whelp, that’s life for ya’, and don’t give a crap about them. The problem was that Tom did care.

After a while, a smell assaulted his nose. It wasn’t Sage, but it was a strong scent. Perfume and blood. This was good, because Tom felt like spilling blood right now.

The person came close to the circle. “H-hey you.”

It was a girl, but Tom wasn’t paying attention. All his logical thinking was null; his reasoning was gone, and only the beast remained. And it wanted nothing but to escape. To kill Sage in the most painful way possible and give him _what he deserves!_ Even if he had to go through every single person in this building to reach him!

"Are you alright?"

Starting with this one.

The girl came closer, and closer. And when she was at the edge, Tom showed his claws and jumped!

**"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"**

* * *

_Alright, that conversation could have started better_ , thought Jackie. She just had come close to the boy, trying to talk to him, and next thing she knew she had to throw herself back when he jumped forward; his clawed hand trying to reach her. She fall back and waited for the lethal strike that never came. The boy was still trapped in the circle; the blood tendrils, now turned into chains, tightened around his arms, holding him in place.

 **“COME CLOSER!”** he yelled, or so it seemed. His voice resonated inside Jackie’s mind as is it were her own. She had to touch her head to confirm it was not being opened apart inside out.

Jackie looked the boy. His eyes were bright pools of fire, exuding flames and smoke. He was like a caged tiger, all giant claws and terrible fangs. He had more teeth in his mouth than Jackie has ever seen. He was a predator staring at his prey. That's it, to her.

And then she looked at him _closely_. His skin was smoking, but different than his eyes. It was as if it was burning and healing itself at the same time. The blood chains were tied around his arms, and maybe because of that it was the most damaged part of his body; his skin looked like charcoal. Suddenly, Jackie saw his face in a different light. His expression was full of rage and killing intent, sure, but there was more. He was in extreme pain.

The face of the boy that had tried to escape, the first one that was killed, was still fresh in Jackie’s mind. This demon boy didn’t look much different. She thought that, maybe if she could get him to calm down and reason with him, he might be able to help her. Or she could help him.

 **“I AM GOING TO RIP YOU APART!”** he jumped again, swinging his claws at Jackie’s direction, and again he was restrained.

On the other hand, this demon might just kill Jackie in ways too horrific to think about. But she will have to take the risk.

She stood up, ever so slowly. ‘You never have to move fast in presence of a predator’, she had read once.

“Listen, you don’t know me but-but I-I am-I mean…” Jackie tried to talk, but she felt her tongue was made of stone.

The demon growled at her. **“DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO HAVE YOUR INTESTINES RIPPED APART FROM YOUR BODY? LET ME SHOW YOU!”**

Jackie covered her stomach with her arms, as if that were to protect her.

 _Calm down, Jackie Lynn! Think!_ She reprimanded herself.

“IknowStarButterfly!” she spoke in a single breath.

The demon stopped his growling. The light in his eyes was snuffed out.

“ **S-Star Butterfly?** ” He spoke with a distant voice, as if trying to make memory. “Princess of Mewni?”

 Jackie breathed out and relaxed. “Yeah! That’s the one!”                                    

Carefully, she took a few steps towards the boy. His eyes now had an almost human look. All three of them.

“Where do you know her from? Is she your friend?” he asked, now in a normal voice.

“Yes,” said Jackie, and then added, “No, not really. I mean, we were... I think… Look, I know her, alright? We went to school together.”

The boy didn’t look convinced.

“You went there one day, remember? To invite Star to some kind of Ball?”

The boy’s eyes opened as his palm found his way to his forehead. “Of course, the school! I remember now!”He made a face as if he was solving a math problem, “Then I-I must be in Echo Creek, right?!”

“Exactly!”

He sighed, visible relaxed. “Well, that’s a relief. At least I am in a place I have been before. I don’t think I know you, though.”

Jackie took a few more steps and kneeled in front of him. Holy shit, he looked even worse up close.

“We haven’t met, but I saw you in school that day. You… _appeared_ in a pillar of fire,” she said, a hint of humor peeking in, “That’s not something you easily forget.”

“I imagine,” he said, punctuating with a short nasal laugh, “Its crazy we would met in this place, uh?”

‘Crazy’ it’s not the word Jackie would use. ‘Maddening’, maybe. ‘Insane’, sure. ‘Terribly ironic to laughable levels’, definitely. Not ‘crazy’.

 “So, uh…” the boy gave Jackie a good look, up and down. “I suppose you… are not with them?”

Jackie stood up, offended. “Of course not! They-they kidnapped me! They dragged me here, they tried to-to… do you see what they did to the others? I don’t know how I am still alive!”

The tone of her voice was louder than what she wanted. She suddenly felt the need to look away, so she concentrated on her surroundings. The bodies were gone, as she had noted when she entered. The masked men felt the need to clear the room, for some reason. Still, there was blood and piles of ashes everywhere, signal of the horror that has transpired. And that’s not talking about the smell.

“I could have been dead by now, and nobody would have known,” she said, the tone of her voice so low it was almost inaudible. She lets herself fall down, more tired than ever in her life. “This is a nightmare“

“I can relate,” said the boy. Jackie saw him inspecting his chains, and rubbing the burned, ashen skin of his arms.

They stayed in silence for a while. They just… it was all too much. They both wanted to talk, to say something reassuring to the other (and to themselves). But what do you say to someone that is in a living Hell, when you are in the exact same position? Jackie had no idea, so she just said what she felt saying.

“Can I help you somehow?”

The boy snorted. Now he was the one looking offended. “Are you kidding me? Nah, this is a walk in the park for a guy like me.”

He used his hands as support and tried to stand up. Or more like he tried to _stay on foot_ , because that was the difficult part. He didn’t last more than one second on his feet when he fell again, being hold in place by the chains. Or maybe he fell due to his own fatigue. Point is he came back to the starting position: kneeling on the floor, with his arms hanging loosely around his sides.

“But I’ll admit I-I have been better.”

A small smile crept on Jackie’s mouth. “Don’t you mean you are ‘not doing so hot right now’?

The boy stared at her. “No, I mean I have been better.”

Jackie went deadly silent.

“What about you?” he said, “How are you holding up?”

“Terrible,” she said, matter-of-factly.  She hugged her legs, using her knees to support her chin. “They are looking for me. I escaped, but they are gonna find me. And when they do…”

Jackie took a quick look at the pool of still-warm blood on the floor. 

“I need to get out of here. And I think you can help me.”

They boy looked disconcerted. “Me? Sorry to disappoint you but as you can see, I am a little trapped.”

“That’s what I am here for. Maybe I can fix that.”

They boy opened his eyes. Even his ears tilted into her direction, as if possessed with life on their own.

“Hold on. You want to free me? You would really do that?”

“Yeah, of course!” Jackie stopped and considered her options. “I mean, I need to know… I want to help you, but I need to know If you would help me escape once you are free?

A huge smile took possession of the boy’s face. “Are you for real? Yeah, of course! If you get me out of this circle, I-I’ll help you get out of this madhouse.”

The boy was shining again, but this time of happiness. It was like a small aura of hope around him. It was really contagious.

Jackie crawled until she was standing right next to him. “We have a deal then?”

“A deal?” he said, surprised. He looked down, with the face of someone considering his options. “Sure, ok. You need a deal? Let’s make one.”

He stared at her, right into her eyes, with all three of his own eyes. There was a glimpse of… of something in them. It was like looking at the night’s sky; as if he were something old and immense. He lifted his right arm, showing his palm.

“I promise to you, that if you take me out of this circle, I will guide you to the exit. I promise you will leave this place, safe and sound. I promise nothing more than that.”

He lifted his other hand, and used his claw to mark an X on his right palm. The mark bled and burned itself in his skin. The boy didn’t even flinched through the whole process, which made Jackie wonder how painful that Staff attack really was.

“ **I give you my demon’s word.”**

The mark on his palm shined a deep red. The boy held his arm in front of Jackie. She felt that somehow, that was a very important moment. Well, it was for her, but she felt it was even more important. It was as if the whole Universe was watching.

She made her choice. She was not gonna get out of there without this kid. She shook arms with the boy, and felt as is her own skin was marked.

“And I promise to you, we will get out of here together.”

The boy’s smile was sincere, and had more teeth than Jackie could count. Still, if you ignored that, the purple skin, the burned arms, the three eyes, the huge horns, and the… Is that a tail? While, it was a lot to ignore. But still, he looked like a normal child, at least to her.

“Speaking of, my name is Jackie. Jackie Lynn Thomas.”

The boy let go of her hand. “Thomas it’s your name?”

“Well, yeah.”

He opened and closed his mouth a few times. “But… My name is also Tomas.”

“What?! Are you serious?”

“Yeah! Well, everybody calls me Tom. Tom Lucitor,” he made a small head bow, “But yeah, Tomas it is.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Wow, it’s weird we have the same name, right?”

Jackie felt herself laughing. “Dude. At this point, nothing surprises me anymore.”

She stood up and clapped her hands, as do all people that have a job to do.

“Alright Tom, let’s get you out of there.”

It was easier said than done, though. Jackie tried holding Tom’s hands to pull him out of the circle, but the best she could do was to get Tom on his feet, after which he was pulled to the floor by the blood chains. After a while trying this they gave up. The other thing she tried was to get inside the circle, which turned to be an even worse idea. Jackie barely set one foot inside, when the circle released an electric discharge strong enough to made her fell.

“That d-d-didn’t w-worked,” said Jackie between spasms.

“You t-t-t-think!” growled Tom as he lifted his body from the place the discharge had thrown him. Still inside the circle, unfortunately.

“Sorry. I have n-no experience with t-this stuff.”

“I can tell!”

Tom rubbed his temples with his fingers, while muttering something to himself. Jackie realized he was counting.

“Just give a minute t-to think this, ok?”

Tom examined the circle and Jackie, surpassed by her curiosity, did the same. It was a pentagram crossed out by a big X. It was surrounded by two sets of two circles. The inner circles were made of bubbling blood. Jackie didn’t know if the blood was very hot or it was simply… alive. The outer circles where made of chalk and had sigils that shined with a golden light. They made her head hurt and her eyes cry, and they were not written in any language she knew.

When some minutes passed, Tom deduced that he won’t be able to ‘dispel’ the circle. Not from the inside. And not without Sage’s Staff and they definitely couldn’t take it from his hands. Jackie was relieve to hear that, because she didn’t wanted to face that ‘lizard face’ again.

“I got it!” he yelled after a while. “Look, see this inner circle? It’s the spell that contains my powers. I am sure I can’t dispel it. But…” he pointed to the outer circle as best as he could, restrained as he was. “This one over here, it-it acts in conjunction with the other. It’s the one that’s keeping me on the floor. It keeps the circle together! And I-it’s just a bunch of chalk. I bet you can dispel it from the outside!”

He looked at Jackie’s eyes, waiting to hear any comment, maybe even some praise. Instead, Jackie stared at the air. 

“Yeah… Sorry, I didn’t get any of that.” She said.

Tom slapped his own forehead again. “Look, just find some water to throw in the circle, and I’ll do the rest.”

“Ah, that’s great,” said Jackie, not trying to hide her anger at his condescending tone. “And where do you suggest I find-“

She stopped talking when her brain made some mental rewind. 

“I now what to do,” Jackie said and ran to the exit.

“Wait! Where are you-“

 “Just wait here!”

“ **And where do you think I would go!?** ” Tom hissed, trying to summon his inner fire, and the only thing he got was smoke and burned hands.

* * *

 Jackie left the room and ran through the corridors once again, this time with a different mindset. When she heard footsteps, she stopped and hid, and when they were gone, she returned to the race. All the hallways looked the same, so she guided herself by the turns she made when following Sage. She thought she was lost when she found what she was looking.

The bathroom was so filthy you would think it has been abandoned and unused for years. She grabbed the bucket and placed it in the sink and opened the faucet. It took a while, but eventually water started to fill the bucket. Brown, rusted water that’s it, which supported her theory that most of the cult followers were men.

She returned to the Red Room as fast as she could, where Tom was waiting.

“Finally!” said Tom, “Where have you-“

“Back off,” said Jackie.

“Hey! You are in no position to tell me to-“

“No, I mean it: go back to the center.”

Tom got what she meant when he saw the bucket, and retreated to the center. Jackie wasted no time. She spilled the water all around the outer circle, wiping the chalk symbols. She ran out of water with half a circle left, but it didn't matter. The effect was instant: the golden color of the circle disappeared, and the electric sensation that filled the room was gone.

Tom felt it too, so he stood up and spoke in the ancient language –which sounded to Jackie like some had put a brick inside a dishwasher. The fire covered his body and reached the blood circle, where it erupted in a pillar of flames so hot that Jackie had to back off a bit.

When the flames dissipated, Tom was standing there, and the blood circle was gone.

“Alright, I’ll admit that was cool,” said Jackie, “how are you feeling?”

Tom examined his arms. The skin still looked burned, and more importantly, the blood chains were still attached around his arms.

“The restraining spell is still in effect,” he said, “maybe if I just…”

Tom made fire burst from his fingers, but soon the chains tightened, making him howl in pain. It was as if his whole body was burning –which was a new feeling to the demon, since fire usually just tickles him. He tried it again, raising the heat, but that only made the pain worse. Finally he ignited his whole body on flames, only to fall on the ground, screaming in frustration.

“Tom, stop it! You are just gonna hurt yourself!” Jackie ran to him.

Tom gave her a snarling look, which made Jackie back off. That made him came back to his senses. He breathed out and extinguished his flames, giving his body the chance to heal his wounds. All except the ones in his arms.

“Sorry, but it's official. I don’t have any powers,” said Tom, “I might try to fight them off but as soon as Sage sees me, I will be trapped again.”

“Well, don’t you have a phone?”

“Left it at home. Along with my dimensional scissors and my weapons. You don’t have a sword or anything, do you?”

Jackie got her multi-tool out. “I got this knife.”

Tom squinted his eyes. The small knife that sprouted from Jackie’s tool was shorter than his own claws.

“Perfect. We are doomed.”

Hopelessness felt over the two teens. Tom looked like he was ready to gave up, or at least like he wanted to brood a little longer about their situation. Jackie, however, was past that point. She was _mad_ , and was not gonna let anything stop her from breaking out.

She kneeled next to Tom, just as before. “Look Tom, I know you are having a bad time. I get it! This is easily the worst day of my life,” she made a pause to calm herself, “But you know something? Powers or not, I am glad to be with you.”

The face of the demon lighted up. “Really?”

“Of course. You wanna know why? Because there is two of us know. And that’s a hundred percent better that being alone.  We are in this mess together. That was the deal, remember?”

It took a few seconds for her words to kick in, but finally Tom stood up upright, making Jackie realize he had been hunching. He was rather tall, and looked like a complete different person right now.

“Yeah, you-you are probably right. I can deal with these maggots later. Let’s get the hell out.”

Jackie didn’t know she still had the strength to laugh, but it seems she did.

“That’s the spirit.”

They left the Red Room behind, walking side by side. Unlike Jackie, Tom didn’t have any trouble looking around the dimly lighted corridors, so they both agreed he should be the lead.

“So, any advice to where we should go?” said Tom once they reached a crossroad.

“No idea,” said Jackie, “this is a flipping labyrinth. Just a bunch of hallways. And there is a few rooms around, but nothing that leads to the exit. The only reason I found you is because I followed the Staff-guy.”

They walked in silence until curiosity got the best of Jackie.

“So…It sounded like you and Sage had history-“

Her mouth was covered by Tom’s clawed hand. He put a finger to his lips; his ears rotated in a cat like way. He pointed to a direction, and they walked that way until Tom stopped. They peeped around a corner, just in time to see Cat and Ape walk down in that direction. Tom and Jackie backed up and disappeared in an adjacent hallway, walking slowly as to not be heard.

“Wait,” Cat stopped walking once he reached the corner.

Jackie and Tom held their breaths.

“I have to go to the bathroom.”

“So? We are not women, you can go alone,” said Ape, “Just come to the Mess Hall once you are done. Oh, and try not to lose any more girls on the way.”

They heard footsteps and a long huff, followed by more footsteps in the opposite direction. They reached the corner and saw Cat disappear the way he came in.

“Nice work,” whispered Jackie.

“Thanks, but that was a close call,” said Tom, “Come on, let’s follow the other guy, and see if he takes up to the exit.”

Jackie put a hand on his shoulder. “Hold on.” She made quick memory of the events that has happened until now, and the pieces of a puzzle felt together in her head.

“Tell me, you wouldn’t have super strength by any chance, do you?”

Tom laughed. “Why, is it that obvious?” he flexed his muscles until he noticed the look on Jackie’s face. “I mean, yeah I-I do. Why?”

Jackie felt a smile crept into her face. “Because I think have a plan.”

* * *

  _I didn’t sign up for this shit_ , was the phrase the Neophyte has been repeating in his head the whole day.

Ha, _Neophyte_. As if he didn’t had a name. Not that any of the ‘brothers’ care to knew it. When they spoke to him it was always ‘Neophyte’ or ‘Number 236783’ or simply 'Hey you, with the stupid face’. How do they know his face was stupid? He had a fucking mask!

Being in an evil sect is not what he was told it was. He was promised riches, influence, power, World Domination from the shadows... Instead, all he got was ‘Whose turn is to clean the bathroom?’

He was doing his business in the bathroom when he reached the conclusion that had been avoiding him. He wanted to get out. And that was even scarier than the idea to be in. He was already on thin ice because of the girl that got away. If they didn’t find her -or if they found he wanted to get out of business- he would be _fired_.

And in this business, being fired meant… He shook his head, trying to keep the image of the last ‘lay off’ he witnessed.

He zipped his cloak and walked out the bathroom, skipping the hand washing. He had walked a few seconds when he turned a corner and saw her. Blond hair and a dyed blue streak. It was the girl he had lost. And she was standing right there, looking like a deer in the headlights!

“N-no, stay away!” she said and ran on the opposite direction. The Neophyte didn’t doubt it; he gave chase.

 _Screw getting out of the game!_ He thought. When he lost that girl, everybody threw a good number on him. As if a teenager was to put their plans in danger or something. But they will eat their own shit when he delivers her on a silver platter! After that… well he didn’t needed to be present to see what they do to her.

He was getting close, so close. She turned around the corner and tripped, loosing speed. The Neophyte stretched his arm and…

“Got ya!” he yelled triumphant: he had grabbed her by the hand.

He pulled her to him. The air suddenly got cold, and the Neophyte went mute. Instead of blue eyes, he found himself staring at scorching wells of the Son of the Blight.

“Yep, you got me buddy.”

Next thing he knew there was a fist moving to his face at terminal speed. He was knocked cold before even touching the floor.


	4. Bad choices

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well hey there everyone! I just wanted to say i am sorry for taking so long with this update (lol i think it was more than a month?)  
> Been really busy with work, and i couldn't find time to finish this. The translating and double checking part takes me longer than writing it in first place...  
> But whatever lol. I am not done with this, that's all i wanted to say.  
> Oh, and that its almost over! Just two chapters to go (plus this one)!  
> Thanks to whoever is reading this long mess i made haha. It definetly made me laugh writing it (and gave me feels). I hope you guys are liking it too.

Tom gave a few small slaps to the guy’s face. The man moved in dreams, but didn’t wake up. Tom slapped him again, stronger this time.

“Ugh… that… that shit isn’t mine officer…”

Finally, Tom punched him with enough strength to send him to the floor again. The man sat upright like a spring.

“Sonofa-“the man looked around in confusion. He saw Tom standing in front of him and grinning and turned pale.

He tried to get up and run, only to realize he had been tied up with his own tunic. “Please d-don’t hurt me! I didn’t- I mean I didn’t want… This was their idea man! This is just a job for me!”

“A job?” said Jackie, as she came out of the shadows of the corner, “Is that what my life is to you?”

Cat went from the fear to the surprise and right back into mind numbing anger.

“You again?! You bitch!” he tried to stand up once again and only could squirm in his place.

Tom kicked him in the shoulder and Cat went stopped moving, but it didn't made him less rabid. “Come on, do what you want with me! I won’t talk!”

Tom put his clawed hand next to Cat’s face, which suddenly turned very pale.

“But I guess I-I could listen.”

Jackie laughed. Tom really knew how to get people to do what he wanted. Normally, that would be worrisome. Right now, it was exactly what they needed.

She walked until she was next to Tom, right in front of Cat. “Don’t worry, we won’t ask you questions. And we are not going to hurt you.”

“Much,” added Tom.

“What we want,” Jackie proceeded, “It’s your help.”

Cat opened his mouth to laugh, but all he got was a dry, humorless scoff. "Oh, you want my help now? This is gonna be good."

“Yep. We need you… we want you to escort us to the exit,” Jackie said, and didn’t waited for Cat to complain, “Once you get us out, I will go to the police, they will get here, and rescue all prisoners. And imprison everyone else.”

“And I will go home, get healed, and recover my powers,” said Tom, while testing the weight of the chains on his arms, “And once I do, I will chase every one of you, and kill you all."

Jackie gave him and stern look.

“Fine. Maybe I’ll just beat you all to a pulp and let you rot.”

“Heh, yeah,” said Jackie, “Now, you can escape of all of that if you get us out.”

Cat realized that they were not kidding; that was their plan. He considered what he heard and weighted his options.

“That's a good idea. And I think it’s super cute that you guys are chummy with each other. But guess what blondie; It’s not gonna work.”

“Don’t call me blondie… It’s weird.”

“Whatever. It’s impossible! Have you looked around you? This place if ridden with guards. And even if we could evade them all, there are even more in the upper level. They will see us, put you two on lock down again, and I will go on my merry way,” Cat reconsidered what he just said, “on second thought, maybe we should try that.”

“Alright, I am gonna cut him open now,” Tom took a step forward and Cat made himself smaller against the wall.

Jackie held the demon by his arm. “It’s ok Tom. Maybe he is right.”

“I am?” asked Cat.

“Yeah, I don’t think he will be of any help,” she said, ignoring Cat question, “Maybe we should head out on our own.”

Tom looked at her and then at their prisoner. Finally, he retracted his claws and took a step back. “Yeah, maybe you are right. We should leave him alone.”

“Yep, definitely. We should leave him here.”

Cat tried to get a clue of what was going on. He got nothing. “So, can I go then?”

“I didn’t say that, I said we will leave you here. In this cleaning closet. We will try to escape and we will surely get captured. They will drag us down and trap us again. Or worse,“ she took a moment to recover her composure, “But before they do, we will tell them everything about what happened here.”

It took a moment for her words to fall into Cat’s brain, but when they did, I was like a hammer on an anvil.

“Oh…”

“Exactly,” Jackie approached Cat and walked circles around him like… well, like a cat to a rat. “We will tell them about how you let me escape, how I let him escape, and how we kidnapped you and trapped you in a stinky closet.”

She stopped in front of Cat. He was covered in sweat.

“Now, would it be my call, I would forgive you. Everybody makes mistakes. But your boss doesn’t seem to take failures very well.”

Tom appeared over Jackie's shoulder, showing his thousands teeth smile. “He does not. Trust me.”

“The way I see it, either we survive and escape and you face the police. Or we don’t, and you face… him,” said Jackie, as she knelt to be face to face with Cat, her blue eyes piercing into his brown ones. “Unless you help us, in which case you go free. I think you can see it’s a good deal. You seem smart.”

The worst part of it all, the part that made Cat shake like a little flower, was not the speech. It was the smile she was giving him. Cold and full of truth.

"W-who the hell are you?!” 

Jackie thought for a moment what the best answer would be. “I am Jackie Lynn Thomas, the girl you tried to kill,” her voice went deathly cold as her smile disappeared, “Guess you failed."

That’s what did it. That’s what finally broke Cat, and with all reason. Hell, even Jackie was scared of what she had said! She internally thanked her dad for letting her watch all those James Bond movies. Who would have thought her Bond Villain imitation would help her someday? The only person that wasn’t shaken was Tom, who had covered his mouth to muffle his laughter.

Cat stayed silent for a few seconds, while he considered, for real this time, what he had heard.

“No, this is crazy!” he yelled, “Look, I explained to you, It-It’s impossible to escape! W-what do you want to do? Walk right in front of the guards as you head to the door?”

Jackie and Tom exchanged a complicit smile.

“Exactly,” said Jackie.

* * *

 Cat tried to look calm and confident as he headed to the upper levels. It was good he was wearing the mask, because he could feel his face was swamp levels of wet. And he only sweated more when he saw Ape at the end of the corridor. With other two acolytes.

“Buddy!” squealed Cat, and then cleared his throat and spoke normally, “I mean, hi partner-uh boss… chief? Sir! Uh… how is it going?”

Ape took out the cigarette out of his mouth. The other guards were smoking too.

“How is it… are you stupid or what?”

Cat didn’t know how to answer so he didn’t.

“What is the thing I told you to do? Go to the Mess Hall once you are done. Instead, I find you here with… who are they now?”

Cat had hoped he wouldn’t notice the other two persons dressed as acolytes that were following him. Now he was hoping he won’t notice the clawed hand that was pressed against his back.

“They are… Initiates! Yeah, that’s right. And I was, you know, showing them the base and everything.”

In a movement that was weird for the lazy Ape, he put his cigarette down and took a good look at the two ‘acolytes’. One of them was wearing a Dragon mask. The other, a Snake one.

“Never seen these two before,“ said Ape, “Also, when did we accept new Initiates? You were in the last bunch.”

Cat tried to speak, but he found his tongue was in a knot. “Yeah I… you see, I will tell you what happened…”

“Hold it. I think I know that idiot,” yelled an acolyte with a Donkey Mask. He was pointing at Snake.

“You do?” said both Ape and Cat.

“Yeah, you are Johnson, right?”

Snake turned hard as a statue, and then nodded vigorously.

“Ha! Knew it! You see we were in orientation together, he and me,” said Donkey to Ape, “He was always babbling how he wanted a Snake mask, or a Reptile or some shit like that.” He tapped his mask, thinking. “Weird, I thought they haven’t picked you for Initiate...”

“They didn’t!” Cat interceded. He could fell the claws dig a little on the flesh over his kidney. “B-but there was another recruitment, right? The one where they picked me. And they choose him too! That's where we became bros… right bro?” He held his fist up and Snake fist pumped him. “But they had him as an outside guard so he-he came inside with the turn shift to see the place, and then this other guy showed up so we were like... Let's make a tour!"

Cat could have sword he saw Ape raise his eyebrow behind the mask.

“A tour? Kid, this isn’t a tree house club, alright? It’s a job,” said Ape.

“Oh, it’s a job now?!” said Cat, no longer caring to hide his frustration, “Well that’s what I believe too. It’s a job. Man, I would like to have a damn job like the one you guys have, were I can lazy around in the hallway, smoke a joint, not go to the mess hall as I am supposed too... Yeah, I would love that job."

Cat wanted to throw himself down a train. That was the kind of shit that, had someone else said it, Cat would have punched him in the face! And by the look of it, the other acolytes were thinking about it.

But then Ape breathed a ring of smoke in Cat face and said: “Just go to the mess hall when you are done. No need to be so whiny.”

Ape walked past him, with the other acolytes behind. Donkey stopped next to Snake.

“Yo Johnson. You still owe me fifty, you recall?”

Snake showed his empty hands, in a worldwide known gesture.

“Yeah, that’s what you said last time. You’ll see. Poker. Double or quits at the mess hall. And don't you 'forget your wallet' again you dipshit,” he gave a light smack at Snake’s mask.

When they had disappeared down the hallway, Cat let himself fall on the floor. “That was so fucking close!”

A small giggle was heard in the hallway, and slowly evolved into a roaring laughter. Cat’s companions removed their mask, showing their bright smiles. Tom wore the Dragon Mask and Jackie the Snake one.

“That was awesome!” shouted Tom between giggles.

“No it wasn’t,” Cat rebuked.

“It was so cool!” Jackie said.

“No it wasn’t!”

“I thought I was going to die!” said Jackie.

“Me too!” said Tom.

"My hands are still shaking!”

“I was this close to jump at them. And when that guy ‘recognized’ you-“

“Oh God, I almost fainted. That was so crazy!”

“Yeah, but then you made that ‘I got nothing’ thing. You are genius!”

For a moment they had forgotten the situation they were in, and were laughing and hopping like the kids they were.

 _And to think these two kidnapped me_ , thought Cat.

“Seriously, I don’t know how stayed so calm back there,” said Tom

“I didn’t!” said Jackie with honesty, but she didn't lose her mood. “I am still in a state of total panic! I managed to block it but I can feel it. In here,” she pointed at her chest. “All that fear and rage is still here, trapped. Right now, I am in shock, but I know I am gonna loose it any moment now. And when that happens I will be reduced to a crying puddle in the floor. I mean, we were this close to be discovered and killed, and it’s the second time for me in 24 hours! That is fucking terrifying!”

She said all of this in a fit of laughter. When she was done, the glimmer has disappeared from Tom’s eyes. Even Cat has taken his mask off and was staring at her.

“But I am holding it in… You know, for the team! Don’t worry about me.”

Tom laughed again, but it was a sad ironic one this time.

“Well, you are doing great so far. You are pretty though you know?“ Tom put a hand on Jackie’s shoulder. It was a small gesture, but a difficult one for the demon. Not exactly a physical person. “Just hold it a little more. We are almost outside. Right Cat?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Cat stood up with a buff and led the way. "Gotta be kidnapped by a buncha teens. Good job me..."

* * *

 They didn’t have any unfortunate encounter like that again. The few people they found -most of them Initiates like Cat- didn't mind them at all. The tunics had disguised Jackie and Tom perfectly, which she was thankful for. They were easy to find: the barracks had newly washed tunics and spare masks all around. Of course Jackie didn’t knew this when she thought this plan, she has just been very lucky and she was cautiously happy about it.

Jackie and Tom took the chance to submit Cat to an interrogation. Unfortunately, he didn’t know anything useful to them, or anything they didn’t knew already. He did reveal the cult’s name. The Red Hand. Apparently, this was a regular Saturday night for them; kidnapping of children and dealing with demons was in their weekly schedule. The topic of Tom’s curse (or ‘restraining spell’ as he called it) came out, but Cat knew even less about it than them. The conversation drifted until it became small talk. Tom and Cat did most of the chat, and Jackie listened. For what she had gathered, Cat didn’t sound like a bad person. In fact, by his looks alone, Jackie couldn’t have believed he was member of an evil demon-summoning sect. But again, a few hours ago he had a knife at Jackie’s back and was ready to end her. 

The subject of Sage came out, and Jackie couldn’t resist asking questions. She was shocked to hear that Sage used to work for Tom. In retrospective, it was obvious judging by the talk she had heard them have. Tom explained that Sage had made a deal with him, not unlike the one Jackie had made with Tom, but with higher stakes: Sage’s soul, with the promise that Tom would bring him back to life after his death.

“Wait, hold on… You can, like, revive people? _Anyone_? For real?” she asked, her curiosity sparked.

“Sure thing! It's one of the perks of being Prince of the Underworld,” said Tom, “Not ‘anyone’ though. If I try to bring someone to life right now, t-they would come back as a zombie. I need to make a deal beforehand. Sage knew he was going to die because he was old and sick, so I cut him a deal. His soul and the rest of his life on servitude and he could came back.”

Jackie tried to wrap her mind about what she just heard, even if the conclusion was distressing. “So, he gets a new life but he had to spend it working for you?”

“Exactly!” yelled Tom, and then he realized what he just said, “I mean It-It’s more complicated than that. Even if I don’t ask him to do anything for me, his soul is condemned. It will stay trapped in the Underworld, without chance of reincarnation." 

He turned to look at Jackie, his red eyes shining behind the Dragon Mask, “Nothing is free. In this life or the next one.”

They all went quiet after that. Jackie had to admit: what Tom said did made sense, in a twisted, weird, pragmatic way. He  _was_  a demon after all. However, hearing him talk about human lives as mere currency made her blood froze. 

“What was the problem then?” she asked.

“The problem was that Sage’s an idiot!” Tom stopped in place, “I carried out my terms of the deal. Hell I-I gave him more of what we agreed! He wanted to work for me, so I figured ‘hey, he-he could be useful’, ‘let’s let him do a living!’” Jackie saw a faint trail of smoke coming out of the Dragon Mask during Tom’s rant. “And turns out it wasn’t good enough for him!”

“What do you mean ‘not good enough for him’? What did you made him do?”

“Nothing!” Tom pulled his mask out, as if he could show the truth on his face, “I mean nothing  _bad_  per se. I just… I think he thought working for a demon would be more like… **‘DEAD, BLOOD, DEPRAVITY, THE FORCES OF EVIL UNLEASHED**!’”

A pyre of smoke and darkness surrounded Tom, and then banished as fast as it appeared

“And I just… man, I just wanted someone to do my laundry.”

“HA!” added Cat, and was ignored.

“Guess he t-thought working for me made him deserving of demon influenced superpowers.”

Jackie took out her own mask. It was just right, given the circumstances. “And couldn’t you just, you know, give him powers?”

Tom crossed his arms around his chest. He looked like an offended child.

“Oh, right. Everything has price.”

“Bingo,” he spitted, voice filled with poison, “But then It-It turned against me cause, guess what? Turns out he is a wizard! I mean not a p-powerful one, but strong enough to-to disappear from my sight. And to call me whenever he wants,” tiredness seemed to overcome him more and more as he spoke, until he was talking in whispers. “You know this is actually the third time he summons me?”

"Really?"

"Yeah. But he has never..."

He tried to find the words to explain the mess in his brain, and when he couldn’t, he pointed at Jackie. “This. This whole… kidnapping and murdering, it’s… It’s new. It's my fault.”

Jackie fought the need to give him the reason. What Tom said had a bit of truth. But if she thought about it for more than two seconds, it was a whole load of crap.

“Hey, listen to me,” she patted Tom’s shoulder, “this isn’t your fault, ok? You did your part, right? You couldn’t have known Sage was a psychopath.”

Tom stopped looking like a kicked puppy and stared a Jackie’s eyes.

A shadow of a smile crept on his face. “Thanks. You are just being nice, but thanks-Ouch!”

He rubbed the shoulder Jackie had hit him in.

“Cheer up, dude,” said Jackie with a laugh.

“I could if I weren’t so hurt,” he said.

“Don't be a baby.”

They both felt the laugh returning to them, to the exasperation of Cat. “Jesus, get a room you to-OUCH!” 

Tom kicked Cat, shutting him up for good.

After that, and with the air lighter than ever, they kept walking. Tom had the sudden notion that everything will turn out just fine. Jackie on the other hand couldn't shake away the fear that has plagued her since she woke up. However, a sense of strange confidence has awoken in her. She knew that as long as they were together, they will be fine.

When they reached a big staircase, Cat informed them they were about to leave the Catacombs and ascend to the Upper levels, which was gonna be even more crowded with acolytes and guards. Once upstairs, Jackie noticed the hallways were wider and more illuminated, and the crossways were fewer in number; it simply felt like it was easier to find your way around here than down there. No wonder it was so difficult to navigate the lower levels: whole place was a goddamned labyrinth! If the ‘cattle’ ever escaped, they couldn’t move two steps without crashing with a wall or getting lost in a hallway.

Jackie realized how far she had come and how lucky she had been.

They reached a pair of big wooden doors, behind which was a door bursting with cultists. Ironically, they looked like they were simply hanging out: sitting at tables, eating late night snacks, chatting with each other or playing cards… They almost looked like regular people, if you ignored the deformed masks and blood covered tunics.

Cat looked inside the room, but didn't make a move to enter.

“Alright listen up, this is important,” he said, “See that door at the end of the Hall? It leads to the exit. And there is  _no way_  to reach it without passing through here. So we need to-we need to stay calm and fool everyone here AND the guards at the exit, and if we don’t… well you don’t want to know what they will do to us. I mean it. You don’t want to know. I do, and I wish I didn’t… it’s just wrong, man.”

Jackie felt it was her place to put some confidence in who, for a lack of a better word, were her partners.

“Don’t worry man. If we came this far, nothing will stop us now. The worst is already over,” she said.

“Yeah, don’t be a wimp,” Tom added, getting a small smile out of Jackie.

Cat buffed and nodded. “You two are either very brave or very stupid. And I am with you guys so it’s probably the second.”

They advanced through the room with their heads down; whenever someone tried to approach them or talk to them, Cat said ‘we are busy’ or any similar excuse. Jackie looked around and recognized a few masks amongst the crowd. There had to be around forty people or so. She saw Tom looking at a group reunited in a circle, in a corner of the room. They were the Council, sitting at a table. Sage was at the head. She put a hand on Tom’s shoulder and rushed him to the exit.

Once outside Jackie unclenched her teeth and Tom untangled his tail, and they all breathed out. They walked the long hallway until they reached a hexagonal room. It was not a big as the Mess Hall, but probably big enough to fit the whole cult in it.

“The Fathers’ room,” Cat had called it, and it was easy to see why.

There was a hallway in each one of the sides of the hexagon, and next to each hallway there was a big portrait. That made it six hallways, including the one they came from and the one leading to the exit, and six portraits, one for each corridor. Each portrait showed a man, usually very old, wearing a fancy tunic. In their hands there was a human mask with a mocking grin. They all were leaders of the Red Hand, the ones that came before Sage. But that answers just opened the door to a terrifying question.

“How long has these guys been in Echo Creek?” Jackie said in a whisper. Cat didn’t hear her or just choose not to answer.

There was a portrait of Sage too, but this was different. It was not done yet, with half of it in plain, lightless colors. And there was someone else there too. Jackie was not surprised to see that the man next to Sage was Ed. He was dressed all fancy; his hair was laid back like he was a tiny lawyer.

After the Fathers’ room, they reached a big staircase, same as the one on the basement. Two gigantic guards covered in red metal armor were standing at its sides. They carried very old looking axes, big enough to cut a man’s head of his body like an orange.

That's it. If they wanted to get out of that madhouse, they would have to fool them.

Cat gulped so hard the kids could hear it. He approached the guards, with Tom behind him and Jackie closely behind Tom, grabbing his tunic.

“Greetings, my fellow cultists!” Cat mumbled.

Up close the guards were even more intimidating; they didn’t wear animals mask -their heads were covered by burlap sacks with holes for eyes. Jackie turned away her gaze. She noticed there was an intercom on the wall to the left. They were this close to being caught… or beheaded.

“What you want?” said one of the guards.

“I… came to hand over these two traitors.”

The kids were shocked at Cat’s words.

It was Jackie who spoke first. "But-but I thought-“

“You can’t do this to us!” Tom yelled with such a poison it startled the presents.

Cat broke free of Tom’s grasp and grabbed them both by the shoulder, pushing them close to him. “You better shut up, you traitors!”

“But I thought you were on our side," said Jackie.

“I thought we had a deal!” said Tom.

“I said shut up!”

“Silence, all three of you!” the guard stepped down, “What in Void’s name is going on here?”

“I found these two sneaking in the storage room to steal our treasures,” said Cat.

At hearing this Jackie stopped struggling, and Tom stopped yelling. Cat surely could not have been planning this from the beginning...

“And the Big Man… the Boss asked me to-to take them out.”

There was a miles deep silence in the hallway. Even with the sacks on their faces, Jackie knew the guards were not buying it.

She broke free of Cat’s grasp and pointed a finger at Tom. “He made me do it!”

Tom picked immediately what was happening. “Me?! You are a fucking liar!”

“I would never steal from our organization sir!”

Tom broke free of Cat grasp too, and started a finger pointing contest with Jackie.

“It was your idea! You planned it all!”

“But it was  _you_  that opened the door.”

“Yeah, and you came in first and got your pockets filled with gold.”

“That’s just not true!”

“Sure it is! And you stole a golden watch too.”

“I found it!”

“Just as you found those silver coins? Saw you hiding them in your mouth. Take out their teeth officer!”

"Not my teeth please!”

“Silence!” roared the other guard, and then they realized he was a she.

She and her partner exchanged a few words for what seemed days, and when they were over they got close to them.

“If what you say is true, we must interrogate them,” said the Male Guard, “Let’s head to the Torture Chamber-“

“No!” Cat yelled, all the while keeping the kids a foot away from the guards, “I mean- The leader, the-the big man the-the guy… he asked me to… take them outside? So they can-uh-clean the mess of the party? You know, as punishment?”

The guards stepped forward. They were so tall they were casting shadows on them.

“That’s not what the protocol says,” said the Woman Guard, in a challenging voice.

Cat was already debating whenever it would be smart to run away. Tom was very close to jump at the throat of the nearest one, in a probably futile attack. Jackie, however, was determined to go big _and_ go home.

“The leader is my uncle,” she said.

The guards looked at each other, probably debating internally if what she had said was true. The three of them jumped when the Male Guard stomped the ground with the pommel of the axe.

“Well that just great! I work myself out every day, and these Neophytes get it however they want”

“Dude, keep it down!” said the Woman Guard. Somehow, Jackie knew that behind the sack on her head, she was smiling despite herself.

The two giants moved to the side, opening a hole for Cat to pass. He did so and dragged his ‘prisoners’ to their ‘punishment’. Tom gave Jackie small thumbs up. They had walked a few stair steps when the Male guard yelled.

“Wait!” the three of them froze in place, “Let me check this one. Gotta see if he got anything in his pockets.”

He walked straight to Tom. Cat got between the guard and him. “That-that won’t be necessary.”

“Sure it will,” the Male Guard pushed Cat out of his way with ease, “It’ll be just a sec.”

 He held Tom in place by his shoulder and searched the pockets of the tunic.

“Hey what are you-Hey your hands are freezing! Get off me!” Tom tried to squirm away of the Guard’s grasp, but he simply couldn't.

“Stay quiet, I think I found something-“

The guard grabbed onto something and then pulled. Tom’s howls were strong enough to make the walls tremble. Jackie didn’t understand what has happened until her gaze went from Tom to the Guard. In his hands he had the end of Tom’s long red tail. And he was tugging it hard.

The awkward silence didn’t last long.

"He is the Son of the Blight!” yelled the Male Guard before Tom kicked him in the stomach, pushing him away.

The Male Guard recovered his poise quickly and counter attacked. He pushed Tom against the wall with a punch, and held him by the neck against the wall, using the handle of the axe to keep him in place.

“Run!” Tom shouted between gasps.

Jackie didn’t had time to debate whenever to escape or not, because the Woman Guard was already heading to her like a bull. Jackie turned around and ran, skipping two steps at the time. But the Woman Guard was faster and held her by the ankle when she was in the air. Jackie felt to the so hard she heard the crack her nose made when it broke.

Her stomach turned around when the Woman Guard lifted her like she was weightless. She dropped Jackie unceremoniously on the floor, right at the base of the stairs. She took Jackie’s mask away, revealing her blood soaked face to the world. The pain was unbearable, and it was almost impossible to breath. Jackie saw to her left with tearful eyes and saw Tom, unmasked and kneeling on the floor. And axe was held at the back of his neck.

“Uff! That was close!” said the Male Guard, “They almost got away with it. Imagine if the Son of the Blight had escaped.”

“Hey check out this one. Pretty sure it’s the blondie that got away,” said the Woman Guard, holding an axe to Jackie’s neck in the same way as his partner. “We hit the jackpot, dude! After this, we will be made the Leader’s Royal Guard.”

“Fuckin’A we will!”

The Male Guard held his hand in the air and his partner gave him five.

 _This is ridiculous, they love this!_  Jackie thought.

“You, Initiate!” said the Woman Guard while pointing at Cat, who until this point has been hiding in corner playing dumb (or smart, depending of the perspective).

“Who, me?”

“Use the intercom. Say we have the demon at the entrance, we need reinforces.”

Cat ran to the intercom on the wall. He stared at the machine, as if asking it for answer. His gaze searched the room and stopped in the kids’ faces.

Tom shook his head in a pleading gesture. “Don’t do this.”

Jackie was broken enough she didn't dare to speak.

Cat pressed the button of the intercom.

“May I have your attention please? Goodnight everyone… How you all doing tonight? What a weather, uh? Dry as fuck… “ said Cat to the machine, his voice reverberating with static through the rooms. “Thing is… we have a runaway. One of the Cattle escaped… well, you guys knew that already. But you don’t know that I… I found her.”

That was it. The burden of reality felt on the kids’ shoulders. Jackie felt the need to cry, but didn’t had the strength. Tom wanted to fight, but didn’t had the will.

“And she-the prisoner I mean. She is…” Cat stopped. He looked once again at the kids’. Jackie could only stare back, hoping it would do the trick.

When Cat spoke again, he did so fast it was almost unintelligible: “ _TheprisonerisintheCatacombssheistryingtoreleasethedemonallunitstotheCatacombsNOW!”_

He let go of the button and the speakers went quiet. The guards growled once they understood what happened.

“You miserable dog!” roared the Male Guard and ran to Cat.

“Don't move you fool!” said the Woman Guard but it was too late.

As soon as the axe left Tom’s neck, he dashed towards the Woman Guard. His fury reborn, he threw a punch at her, impacting her stomach. Once she hunched over he took advantage of his position and shoved her into the nearest wall. The Guard hit her head against the corner and went numb; her axe discarded on the floor.

Jackie rushed to his side, her own pain ignored for a moment. “Good job Tom! That'll teach her!”

She lost her excitement when a thin scream was heard. Cat was playing cat and mouse with the other Guard. He kept running in circles, ducking away the axe attacks.

Jackie’s instinct took over, awaken by the sudden euphoria. She lent a hand to her partner. “Tom, let’s knock this jerk over.”

Tom understood perfectly what she meant: he grabbed her left arm with his right one, just by the elbow. Tom whistled to get Cat’s attention, which immediately turned over and ran towards them. It was a chronometrical situation; they waited until Cat was right in front of them and the Guard has raised his axe to the side for the final strike.

“Duck!” yelled Jackie and Cat throw himself to the ground.

The kids ran forward. Their joined arms hit the guard in the chest. She could felt Tom’s famous super strength; it was almost as if it were amplifying her own. It was enough to throw the Guard of balance, making him fall like an anvil. He tried to get up but was pushed down by Tom’s foot. In his face. One time and another until he knew for sure he would not stand up.

He lived, mind you. But he was most definitely mangled behind that sack-mask.

The three were breathing heavily, trying to calm their drumming hearts. Jackie looked around. Two gigantic guards lay unconscious on the floor. Their weapons were discarded and forgotten. And the rest of the cult, misguided as they were, now knew the truth: that they had escaped. And surely they will be looking for them in full scale now.

“Well,” said Jackie in a tired voice, “That could have been worse.”

* * *

 The speakers made a buzzing noise and then went silent. The Mess Hall didn’t take long to fall into panic. Every acolyte and guard was asking the same questions. ‘Is it truth the demon escaped?’, ‘How is it possible?’ And more importantly ‘Whose fault is it?’

The Council knew it was just matter of time before they start to blame them. After the short argument they had, the four members had decided to reunite with their subordinates on the Mess Hall. They had intended to transmit the Cult some peace and calm about the ‘procedure’ they had performed tonight. But they had failed and now a state of dread was slowly taking over them all. The Council could only point at each other masks, passing the blame on the others.

All of them except Sage, who was watching the scene before him in silent reflection. There was something just not right, and it had to do with that message. He kept to himself until he felt a hand on his shoulder. The Neophyte looked at him and pleaded for him to do something. Sage could feel his anxiety even behind the mask. With good reason, for no other Neophyte could dream of ever being this close to their Leader. But well, he was special.

Sage gave his orders to the Council. The veteran members had to mobilize the Cult to the lower levels. If the demon truly had escaped, they needed all the members to subdue him again. And if he had abandoned the building already… well they would need to perform the Escape Protocol. Worst came to the worst, they can always begin again.

This eased the Council, and they went to give orders to the Lieutenants. When the Neophyte tried to leave, Sage stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

He got close to him and spoke in a complicit voice. “I have a Job for you.”

* * *

 Back again at the entrance, Jackie stared at the knocked out bodies of the guards, still in disbelief that they had survived that encounter. Tom was next to her, cleaning her bloodied face with a piece of cloth.

“Ouch! That hurts,” she said and tried to move, but Tom kept her in place.

“Stop squirming then! Your nose is in fucking pieces," he said with sadness in his tone, "It's my fault. I'm sorry. The spell must have weakened me more than I thought."

"It's ok. I'm fin-Ouch!"

"Sorry."

Meanwhile, Cat was walking back at forth, seemingly with the intention to make a hole into the ground. He had taken the mask off, and he looked soul-shaking miserable.

“We are dead,“ he said, matter-of-factly, “We are fucking dead! Why the fuck did I do that?! I don't care about your asses! And now they are coming after MY ass!”

"Calm down!” Tom shouted, “By the time they get up here we gonna be far gone.”

“So what?! These two gonna wake up someday, and they’ll tell what happened!” he stopped walking when a dreadful realization took him over, “Oh God, they have registries. They-they have my real name. They know where I live! They are gonna come looking for me and… I need to escape. I need to-to pack my shit and run to fucking Argentina or some!

“Even more reason to leave now,” said Jackie; her face was still a bit red, but the bleeding has stopped. Tom had made an improvised bandage around her nose with a piece of his tunic. “I think I have spent enough time underground for the rest of my life.”

Cat had to give her the reason, but he was used to it by this point. He picked a big key holder from the Male Guard and they all headed upstairs at fast speed. Slowly, they felt into small chat, sharing what each of them would do once out. Cat was gonna move out, simply as that. He would grab all his stuff, hop on the closest long distance bus, and 'get the fuck away'. Out of the State if possible. Jackie suggested him Oregon. Tom will call his dad to pick him up and bring him back to the Underworld. There, they would dispel the curse completely and he could start to heal. Once he is whole, he will go for Sage. As for Jackie, she had simpler ideas. She wanted to get out, catch a sniff of fresh air, give a big bear hug to her dad, and call the police so they could come and rescue the imprisoned kids.

“That won’t do any good. They must be packing everything already,” said Cat, with solemnity, “And disposing of the Cattle.”

Jackie froze. “Disposing?”

“Well, yeah,” said Cat. “I mean, some of them will survive for sure. The cult always keeps a few alive. Probably they will be caged in an abandoned warehouse for a few days, but they will live. But the rest of them…”

The picture of the kids being cut in half by masked acolytes was still fresh in Jackie’s mind. It brought the horror back, as if it has never left.

“They are going to kill them all?! Just like that?”

“Well… not all of them, but-“

“We have to do something!”

“I am sorry Jackie, there is nothing to do,” said Tom, giving his back to her and heading to the exit, “We have to get out and send word to the cops.”

“Are you-Didn’t you hear what he said? By the time they came here they'll have to clean up the bodies, and the Cult will be gone! We-we need to go back for them.”

She gave a few steps downstairs when Tom’s furious voice made her halt.

“If you go down, you will never get out! After all the trouble we went for getting this far, now you want to go back?”

“That doesn’t matter, I have to. If we hurry, we might save them-

“Sure! And worse came to the worse they’ll just catch you, kill you, kill everyone else and trap me in a stinky basement again as the cherry on top. Nothing to w-worry about!”

Tom’s voice came out of an angry place, but it was also hurt in a personal way. Jackie understood, because she was feeling the same.

She walked a few stairs up, just enough to get at eye level with him. “I can’t believe you. These kids were kidnapped, just like you. Are you gonna let them die?”

Tom grunted and scratched his hair, which by this point was completely out of shape.

“Look. You want to help them? We have to leave. I’ll call my dad. He-He will dispel this stupid spell so I can chase the cult and turn them into ashes.”

“What good will that do?”

“The good is that you don’t die like an idiot! Which is what will happen if you come back now try to save these people that –in case you forgot- you didn’t even cared for until today! We went through all of that just to escape and now you want to play the hero?! That's just nuts!”

Jackie was speechless. The truth on Tom’s words weighted on her. If she went back, she may as well die. It was almost certain. She looked closely at the Demon’s face, exhaling smoke from his nose; his eyes a scorching fire that could consume everything.

Her eyes went wide as a powerful realization felt on her shoulders. “You don’t really care about these people. You never did.”

Tom breathed out a cloud of smoke. It surrounded him like a shadow.

 **“Do you dare to talk to me like that?”** Tom spoke with a voice that felt like a thousand ones.  **"You don't know me."**

The red glow of the chains intensified, bathing the staircase. He was in obvious pain, but he couldn’t stop now.

**“These maniacs sacrificed those people because of me. It's my fault, Jackie! These people are in the Underworld because of me!”**

“And they are going to kill even more,” said Jackie in a glacial voice.

**“I have to get my powers back! THEY HAVE TO PAY!”**

“Then it’s not really for them, is it? This is all for _you_.”

The smoke went quiet as silence felt on the two kids. Jackie saw a shadow of a doubt in Tom’s face, but it quickly disappeared as the demon lunged forward and held her by the arm.

“I gave my promise I would get you out.  **We had a deal!** ” Tom raised his right hand, showing the red-bright cross on his palm.

Jackie’s tongue twisted in a knot. In Tom’s eyes she could see… nothing. No trace of the boy was left. Only shapeless shadows and burning fire. She screeched as pain took over her. Tom let go of her. When she examined her arm, she saw the mark of Tom’s fingers burned in her flesh. All the anger ran away from Tom’s face; the demon had yielded and an anxious ridden teen has taken its place.

“Jackie I-I am sorry, are you-“ Tom moved to touch her, but Jackie pushed him back.

She didn’t have the patience to deal with him. Nor the will. And definitely not the time. She cut a piece of the tunic and bandaged her burned arm.

“You are right,” she said, eyes fixed only in the work at hand, “We had a deal and you did your part. You brought me to the exit. Now leave. Go to your dad and get fixed up.

“And once you are healed you can come back and burn these assholes to the ground if you want.”

She finished the bandage. It was a rough handiwork, but it would have to do. She was so tired.

“But I can’t leave those kids alone. I am the only thing they have.”

She spoke in an accusatory voice; the weight of her frustration falling on her words, in a way that could freeze you to death. It certainly felt that way to Tom.

The boy took a step forward, but she took one back.

“You are going to die there, with them!”

From somewhere inside her, Jackie brought forward a smile. “At least I’ll know I tried.”

Considering the conversation done, she turned around.

“Wait!” Cat shouted, reminding the kids he was there. He took a big iron key out of the key holder. He kept the key holder in his pocket and threw the key at Jackie.

“Go to the Fathers’ room and turn left at the first hallway. The prisoner’s room it’s the last door at the end, you can’t miss it. And I…” Cat lowered his head, “I am sorry.”

Jackie stared at the key, but didn’t know what to say. Or maybe she just didn't have anything to say to him.

“Thanks.”

She made a few steps down when she heard Tom calling her name.

“Jackie wait!” he yelled in panic. “I-I did what I said. I brought you to the exit. It’s right here! I didn’t promise anything else, I-I just…"

He couldn’t look at Jackie’s face; his words lowing in tone until he was silent.

Jackie decided, because of everything that had happened that day, to spoke one last time to the boy.

“Goodbye Tom.”

This said she gave her back to them and started to run. Away from the Tom, from the exit. From the light. And into the darkness again.


	5. Battle royal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! I know i have been pretty silent about this fic so far (shyness and what not), but i just wanted to thank the people that took the time to read it.
> 
> It's been a while since i have posted a fic on the internet. Damn, last time i did, i think AO3 didn't even exist. And its my first time posting something in english (not my first language)
> 
> But i did it, and even if the result is not the best i am happy with it, and i am happy to say that i finished it and posted it.
> 
> In any case, there is only ONE chapter left. Guess that's why i felt the need to write something.
> 
> Anyway thats it! Hope you guys are enjoying this crackship fest as much as i am enyoing writing it!

She was feeling dirty, hurt and mad. Dirty because she had spent hours in this smelly basement and she too was beginning to reek. Hurt because that Cat-mask maniac had punched her and redecorated her nose. And mad because life was a bitch; and because her parents were too permissive and let her came to a party they didn’t know anything about. But mostly she was mad against herself for letting this happen.

Seriously. You always hear “take care of yourself, those things happen!” But you don’t believe they happen until they happen to _you_.

She was glad, however, of being part of the ‘lucky ones’. She was alive! When she thought about the other kids that had died in that circle… Damn it, she knew most of them! All around her the room was about to burst, filled with kids tied up waiting for the worst to happen. She herself had her hands tied up behind her back. She had struggled, trying to get out of them but to no luck. She had an advantage though: the guy that tied her up had forgotten her legs, so she had some mobility. Many times she rammed against the door but it didn’t yield.

For a while she had been in silence, allowing the rage to boil inside her. She had reached a conclusion: she no longer cared what happened to herself. She was too pissed off to. As soon as that door opened, she was gonna go for it and beat…  _kick_  whoever comes in. What happened after that was irrelevant.

Soon enough the door opened, and one of the man in tunic came in; he was wearing a snake mask. He scanned the room, probably counting the people in it. Then his gaze felt on her

“Calm down, everything will be fine,” he, or rather  _she_  said with a doll’s voice.

That was the moment! The girl put all her strength in her legs and lunged forward. She ended head butting the wall when Snake dodged her.

“Oh shit! Are you alright?” said the Snake lady, and tried to help the girl on her feet.

She got up by her own. She could feel everyone in the room was staring at her, which only made her angrier. She spit and yelled any and every insult, curse and foul word she could thing of at the lady. Too bad she had a gag; otherwise it would have sounded cool.

“So I guess that means you are ok?” said the Lady.

The girl spitted more insults against the Lady's mother.

“Alright, I didn’t get any of that. But check this out.”

The Lady put her hands on her head. Jackie took the mask off.

The astonishment in Not-Sam face was well worth the risk of coming back for kids. Seeing her and the others, Jackie realized they got the short end of the stick. Most of the kids were covered in bruises and cuts and some of them even had their clothes removed or torn apart, exposing their skins for even greater damage.

Not-Sam was not an exception. Despite her bravery –or maybe because of it- the guards have taken it personal to her face, mostly her nose and eyes. A powerful feeling of responsibility took over Jackie.

She took the red soaked gag out of Not-Sam’s mouth.

“Blondie, it’s you!” said Not-Sam with awe, “I thought you were done for. How the hell did you escaped?”

“Oh you know. I hide, kidnapped a guard, stole some clothes, disguise myself among them, and came to rescue you guys,” said Jackie.

Not-Sam was staring at her like she was the Olympic torch or an Academy Award.

“More or less. Now turn around.”

The multi-tool’s knife was still crap, but being able to use both hands made it easier to break Not-Sam’s ties.

The girl laughed victorious and rubbed her wrists. “Finally! That hurt like a bitch.”

She was moved out of the way by a teen boy. He extended his arms to Jackie, pleading to be freed. Soon enough others came rushing. Jackie worked as fast as she could, trying to free them all, when the door opened again. 

Everybody froze. In the doorstep there was an acolyte, wearing a Rat mask. When he realized what was happening, he pointed his black sword in Jackie’s direction. She, in turn, pointed her ‘knife’ at him. She could see the Acolyte’s hands shake, so she tried to keep her hand steady and not show any weakness.

This sort of showdown ended when the Acolyte dropped the sword on the floor. “Oh, fuck it!”

He made a turnaround and ran away. Jackie’s initial joy was replaced with dread as she realized that she had been discovered. Acting on instinct, she went after him, only to return to the room moments later.

“You!” Jackie pointed at Not-Sam. She picked the sword off the ground and placed it on the girl's hands. “Help me, release them all! I’ll catch to you guys later.”

And with that she gave chase again. That sudden display of leadership turned Not-Sam rage into powerful resolution. She held the sword firmly and slashed through the rope. There was no time to lose.

* * *

  _I have nothing to feel bad for_ , thought Tom as he walked the stairs up to the exit. He had been repeating that mantra to himself ever since he left Jackie.

Or ever since  _Jackie_  left him?

The point is they were not together anymore! And he still can't get her out of his head.

“I did what I promised, goddamnit,” he grumbled, “She is the one that wanted to get down there. If she wants to play the hero and die like a martyr, that’s her choice! I am not responsible… Right?

Cat said nothing. He had been walking in front of Tom ever since Jackie… ever since. And he hasn’t said one word. He did, however, turn his head a little and gave Tom a sideways look full of judgment.

“Oh, save it! Besides, w-what moral high ground do you have? You-you are a fucking murderer man! And not even a good one: you were kidnapped by a teenage girl."

Not one word.

“And what if she is surely going to die? I tried to prevent that! But did she listen? No-o!  And what if these kids died because of me? I am trying to fix it! I am gonna chase every one of these acolytes and rip them apart! Does that make me a killer?”

Tom didn’t get any answer. They ran out of stairs as they reached the ceiling. A wooden trapdoor was there.

“You know what yeah, maybe I am a killer and a horrible person, but so what?! So are you! So get out of your judge-cloud buddy, cause we are the same!”

Only then Tom stopped to think about all that he said. Going back to it, it was creepy to say the least. He felt himself going down on a spiral of anger, mixed with some guilt to add flavor. He didn’t want to fall. Not again. He didn’t want to be that person, that angry demon, anymore.

He found himself thinking of Star. What would she say if she saw or heard everything he did and say? What would Marco say? Or Tom’s psychiatrist (who by the way will have to book him for tomorrow)? Or Jackie?

 _It’s not really for them, is it? This is all for you,_ the girl’s words echoed in his memory.

A loud bolt brought Tom back. Cat had unlocked the door. He pushed it open, revealing an old house; the light from the outside was enough to blind Tom momentarily.

“So are you coming or what?” said Cat coldly.

Tom stood there, thinking what to do _._ He raised his hand and stared at the cross –shaped scar. He asked himself what kind of person he was.

He realized that maybe he was a not good person. But that didn’t mean he couldn’ make the right choice.

“Go get the police,” Tom said before running to the basement.

Cat smiled behind his mask. “That’s what I thought.”  

He abandoned the building with the intention of execute the kids wishes.

After all, there are bad guys. And then there are  _Bad_   _Guys_.

_No where the hell am I gonna find the cops?_

* * *

 Jackie lost sight of the intruder a soon as she stepped in the hallway. Although technically  _she_  was the intruder; but those are details.

She reached the end of the corridor and entered the Father’s room. She looked around trying to decipher when he had gone, when a hand touched her shoulder. Her instinct kicked in and she turned around with a high kick.

“Ugh! Hey!” the acolyte backed off, holding his right shoulder. “That fucking hurts, you know!”

Jackie recognized his voice immediately. “Hello Ed. Nice of you to show up. You are late, but that’s usual.”

Ed took his mask off. He had styled his hair down, just like how he had it in the portrait but a bit longer.

“What do you mean ‘show up’? I have been around the whole time! But I couldn’t just appear and say ‘hi, how you doing!’” Ed said with an offended tone. “But forget about that. I need to get you out of here. You are in danger!”

Jackie took a defensive stance. “No kidding. That’s why I am not going with you anywhere.” She raised her multi-tool just as before, taunted Ed to come closer.

To Jackie’s surprise, he laughed.

“What are you gonna do with that? Cut my nails?” he pointed at the multi-tool.

In a rush, Jackie had pulled out the nail-cutter.

“Shoot, hold on…” she played with her multi-tool and then pointed it at Ed again. “Aha!”

“Screwdriver.”

“Damned it!” again, she searched for the right tool, and finally pulled the knife out. “Aha!”

Ed slapped Jackie’s hand, making her drop the pocket knife. Once it touched the floor he gave it a powerful kick, throwing it to the farthest wall.

“…Well, shit,” she said.

“Jackie, I am begging you. Let me help you.”                 

She took a few steps back as Ed came closer to her. If she can’t fight him, maybe she can drag him to the prisoner’s room. She should have advantage there. Worst case scenario she can earn some time to think of a better plan.

“Uh, don’t you want to chat in private, or-“

“No! There is no time. We need to get you out,” Ed pleaded as he followed Jackie down the corridor. “Look, my dad-“

“Lizard-face,” she corrected, “Sage.”

“Eh, yes… Look, he heard that message. He took everyone to the basement but he knew something was off, so he sent me up here. He ordered me that, if I found you, I had to kill you. But I don’t want to!”

“Geez, thanks.”

“You are welcome.”

Jackie sighed. Did Ed really don’t get voice tone or was he just messing with her?

“But if it turns out that the demon escaped-”

“Technically, I freed him.”

Ed stopped walking; a dreadful expression was painted on his face. “You know what? Never mind. We can still work with that. But we need to leave right now!”

Jackie had managed to guide him to the hallway, but she had to keep this going. At least until the other kids were freed.

“Sounds good!” she said, trying to sound cheerful.  “But, um… I can’t let the others kids here, so why don’t you let me go for them and we-“

Ed grabbed her by the hand. “What? No, no. This offer is just for you.”

He was holding her well in place, which might or might not help her, depending on how she handled the situation.

“Look, I-I know you are better than this. You are funny and smart and nice when you want to. And I am pretty sure you are not a killer like your dad,” said Jackie in her charming voice (or the best one she had).

 “You are a good person inside, Ed.  _Very_  deep inside. Why don’t you show it now and let me save the others?”

The boy seemed to ponder about that for a minute, before going back to his old self. “Are you for real? I am giving you a once-in-a-life opportunity and you want to go back for-for some guys you don’t even know? After everything I had to do to convince my dad not to kill you?”

The pieces of the puzzle finally held in place. Too bad the image was of a horror story.

“That was you?” yelled Jackie, her voice trembling with rage. “You saved me and let the others die?!”

“Fuck yeah! And I am not gonna let my work go to waste!” he pulled Jackie to his side.

Despite his lanky body, that boy had strength. Jackie struggled as much as she could, but he dragged her back to the center of the Father’s room.

Jackie had something in her favor however: she was sick of being pushed around and her body knew it. She gathered all her will and strength and held in place.

“I am not going anywhere with you! You psycho!”

This time she was the one pulling. And this time, Ed was the one being dragged. Directly into Jackie’s fist, which connected to his face. He let go of her with a yelp and held his bleeding nose in his hands

He stared at Jackie like a wolf to a prey. She made a run to the exit but he was faster and threw her on the ground. She fought but he was too heavy on her.

“Ed, please, just-!”

She was cut by a slap on her check, strong enough to make her broken nose bleed again. She tried to scream but he launched his hands to her neck.

“Shut up!” Ed roared.

There was nothing human or gentle on his face. It was like he was replaced by an animal.

Panic took over Jackie. She fought with all her might; she slapped and punched Ed as best as she could but it was all in vain. Soon she couldn’t breathe anymore. When her sight went blur, she stopped fighting.

“You are an ungrateful bitch, you know?” Ed voice was distant and alien, “I thought you were worth saving, that we get each other. But if you want to die so badly, then die!”

He pushed even harder, waiting to hear that final crack.

“Excuse me, Sir?”

Ed’s head moved like a whip to the source of the voice, only to receive the impact of a black boot that sent him flying several meters away.

“You are hurting the lady, you know?” Tom said in a calm voice that hid his anxiety.

Without Ed’s body on top of her, Jackie could breathe again. She focused her sight and was greeted by the image of Tom kneeling next to her.

“You alright?" he said.

She reached to touch her own face. The place when Ed had slapped her hurt like crazy, and her head was pounding. And that’s not to mention the numbing pain of her broken nose. But she was alive, thanks to Tom.

“It’s just pain. I’ll live,” said Jackie; her throat was so sore she could barely talk.

Tom helped her on her feet, holding her by the shoulders.

 “So… you came back,” she said, coldly.

“Shouldn’t have left,” Tom said and pulled a piece of cloth, probably from the tunic he wasn’t wearing anymore.

He cleaned the blood of Jackie’s face as best as he could. “I messed up, I am sorry.”

Jackie wanted to comfort him, to tell him that wasn’t the case. But she wasn’t going to lie.

“Still, you came back,” she said, with sincere emotion. “Why?”       

Tom evaded her gaze; a million thoughts flashed in his head. He raised his hand, showing her the cross-scar. Jackie had forgotten about that completely.

“This is why I came back,” he confessed, “I was about to leave, and I realized that-that I couldn’t. I promised to take you out of here, safe and sound. S-so until that happens, I-I am not leaving your side.”

He put his hand on Jackie’s shoulder and gave it a little tug. It was a small gesture, but a big one coming from someone so not used to gentle physical contact, like Tom. Jackie, on the other hand, was cuddly and emotional. So when she felt the urge to hug Tom, she didn’t hesitate. He was surprised at first; feeling her hands on his neck was weird, but he gave him to the moment and hugged her back, although a bit weirded out at first.

“It’s okay,” he whispered, “We-we are together now, ok?”

She looked at him. His face showed a mix up between a puppy face and a piranha smile. It was something out of this world. But then she looked at his eyes and somehow, she knew it. Even without the deal, he would have come back for her. In his eyes, amid the fire and pain, there was something else. Behind the demon, there was Tom. Not just one or the other, but the two of them. Right now, the boy was stronger and that’s all that mattered to Jackie.

“Welcome back, dude. Took you long enough,” she said, getting a laugh out of the boy.

This didn’t last, though. Soon they heard a thunderous sound coming from the hallway behind them. Tom kept good to his promise and put himself between Jackie and the noise. He was surprised when the noise turned out to be a bunch of dirty teens running inside the Fathers’ room. There had to be twenty or thirty of them. Had Jackie really free them all?

Jackie, on the other hand, was happy to see Not-Sam leading the group; the black sword shining in her hand.

“Blondie! You are… alright,” Not-Sam went silent when her eyes felt on Tom.

The other kids stopped their march once their de facto leader did too. From their point of view, Jackie, the girl who had saved them, was badly hurt. And between she and them, there was a demon. The same demon they have been kidnapped to summon.

It was a distressing scenario, honestly., so it’s impossible to judge them for how they reacted.

“Get him!” ordered Not-Sam, prompting a group of teens to lunge forward, ready to unleash their fury on Tom.

The boy had no idea what to do. He didn’t want to fight them –and even if he wanted, he couldn’t in his weakened state. Jackie fixed that problem by shielding him with her body.

“Woah! Hold on guys, calm down!” she shouted, stopping the crowd from assaulting Tom, “Take it easy, ok? This is Tom. He is my friend.”

The natural way she said that made Tom smile.

Not-Sam scoffed. “Are you kidding me? He is the reason we are here!”

“No he is not! Those masked Cult jerks kidnapped us so they could kidnap him. He is a victim, just like us. Look at his chains!”

Tom felt self conscious about the blood chains around his arms; a reminder of his failure. Still, Jackie’s words worked like a balm, calming the beasts. Even Not-Sam had to admit that was reasonable. She lowered her weapon only to raise it again.

Another multitude of steps was heard from the opposite direction. Jackie and Tom saw with horror how the swarm of gold that was the Red Hand flooded the room. Their mask shined lifeless with the torches lights. They congregated directly in front of them, cramming to fit in their side of the room.

Looking at it from above, it looked like a golden mass on one side, facing a black mass on the other. And in the middle, two beans-like dots –Tom and Jackie.

Tom turned to face the Red Hand, as Jackie turned her back to him and faced the teens. She held Tom’s hand unconsciously.

“So… This is all part of your plan, right?” Tom asked.

“I never said I had a plan,” said Jackie simply.

“Ah, that’s great. We are doomed then.”

Tom looked around. He could practically smell the bloodlust in both groups. The way to the exit was close. So close! They could make a run for it… But Jackie wouldn’t leave now, not without these kids. And he would not leave without her.

Without anything else to do, Tom interlaced his fingers with Jackie’s. They waited.

The sound of heavy footsteps, being followed by a thumping noise, invaded the room. The mass that was the Red Hand split in half, leaving a small gap in the middle. From it, Sage emerged. He had the Staff in his hand and was stomping it on the ground, calmly but firmly. The other four Council members were close behind.

He walked to where Ed was, helping the recently awake boy on his feet.

“Ugh… Sir?”

“I told you not to get distracted,” Sage said, sounding like an offending father. “Specially with a _girl_.”

“Dad, I-“

He was cut by Sage hand slapping his cheek. He didn’t do so with great strength, but it looked like it destroyed Ed completely.

“You are a disappointment,” said Sage and resumed his place with his followers.

On the face of the boy, Tom saw something he recognized. Resentment. Yeah, something broke in that boy and it was never going to heal. He almost felt bad for him. Who would have thought Sage had a kid?

“So, Tomas. You were trying to escape weren’t you? This must be another hit in your embarrassingly long list of failures,” said Sage once he had his followers behind him. Ed too was at his side.

He was using that voice, the one Tom and Jackie knew very well. He was trying to drill inside their brains, to push them enough they will lose themselves and let him take control. Jackie turned to face him, only to see the Dead Light shining from behind his mask again. It made her sick and tired, just as before.

“A ‘failure’? Oh come on. I was…” Tom held stronger on Jackie’s hand, seeking comfort in her. “We were this close to escape until a minute ago and-“

“But it wasn’t enough,” said Sage in a sentencing voice, “You know? You are very ungrateful. I brought you here with a great promise: the opportunity to fix your mistakes. Maybe it wasn’t what you expected, but you still got the chance. I could have killed you and I didn’t. You could have made the murder of the children be worth something, and you choose to let it waste. Tell me: What does it feels like knowing you are responsible for all this death?”

Jackie looked down to see Tom hands shaking. Around her she could see Sage words were taking effect. It’s like he was choking everyone out of their will; the weight of his words an unbeatable truth.

Or so he thought.        

“Dude, are you fucking nuts?!” Jackie yelled, shocking everyone. “Are you really putting the blame off all this on him? You kidnapped us. You murdered those kids. It was you who brought him here! And you think he should thank you because you didn’t kill him? You are  _not_  supposed to murder people, dude! Let alone dozens of children! I-I really don’t know if you are so far gone you really believe all this, or if you are just trying to mess with us. Well it might work with your acolytes, but not with me. I know who you are.”

“Is that so?” said Sage with humor.

“I do. You are just a psychopath that’s trying to get things his own way. And you are such a coward that you get those guys to do the dirty work for you, convincing them that they will get some sort of prize. Just like you are trying to convince us that this is not your fault.”

Jackie could see that around Sage the cult was getting restless. They were whispering to each other. It was as if her words had dropped a bucket of rusty bathroom water on their heads, and they were slowly waking up from a dream.

She took a deep breath. “Well, it’s true isn’t it? You pretend that this is for them, that those kids you killed were for the greater good or something. But it was all just so you and your inner circle could get a reward. What will be of these guys after that? You just gonna abandon them and let them take all of the blame?”

The whispers became angry talking. They already knew she was right; hearing someone else say it was all they need it. Ed was looking around in a state of panic. The council members were gathering together behind Sage. The man itself was a stone, but Jackie could tell he was barely holding on.  

She was so focused was she didn’t notice Tom was staring at her with sparks in his eyes.

“But then everything went to hell. You are blaming Tom, but it was you who failed. Look at us! I escaped, I freed him, freed these kids over here, and we are _this_ close of walk out of here… And I think your cult is thinking if you can fix this mess you dragged them on.”

Sage looked at his followers for the first time. His body language had betrayed him, letting Jackie see what has behind his mask. Doubt.

“And no, I don’t think you can.”

A titanic silence felt on the room. Everyone, from the Red Hand to the kids, to Sage himself knew it: he didn’t have the same power as before. But unsurprisingly, he was not ready to give up.

“Nice speech,” said Sage, the Dead Light sparkling with rage.

In his hands, the Staff went nuclear.

“I’ll have someone read it at your funeral.”                                       

The pain flooded her as Sage raised his staff. Thunder and lightning surrounded her, piercing her skin; it was like being burned alive inside out. She met the ground, the pain numbing her senses.  All Jackie could do was to scream and beg for it to be over. And soon enough a strong force pushed her to the side.

She laid on the cold floor, waiting for the phantom pain to disappear. When she could focus her gaze, she saw how, in the place where she was before, now there was Tom clenching his teeth and trying not to give in the pain. He lost it when Sage came closer, raising him in the air by power of the lightning. His howls froze Jackie’s soul.

She panicked. He had saved her, and now he was going to be ripped apart if she didn’t do something! She looked around frenetically for help but to no use. Everyone was staring at the situation, either waiting for Tom to die, or for Jackie to do something. Even the teens looked like they had lost their courage. All except Not-Sam. When Jackie crossed eyes with her she jumped immediately to her side.

“Blondie, are you alright?!”

Not-Sam kept talking, trying to get a response but Jackie had none. She was desperately trying to come with a plan, anything. What she needed was to get that damned Staff out of Sage’s hands! She needed a distraction.

She put a hand on Not-Sam’s shoulder, shutting her for good.

“I need your help,” said Jackie.

Tom on the other hand was not really doing much, except screaming his lungs trying to not pass out. That and thinking.

Very few times he had considered how he was going to die. Sometimes he felt in a great war, battling to protect his kingdom. Other times, he was assassinated –or devoured- by a stronger demon, in an attempt to take over the throne. And sometimes he had pictured himself dying on his bed, with Star holding his hand.

However, being killed by a psychopath minion of his in a stinky basement surrounded by a crowd of teens and cultist was not how he imagined it. But hey, no regrets!

When he saw Jackie being hit by the lightning that had his name on it, he didn’t doubt it. He pushed her to the side and took all the damage. Even now he doesn’t know if it was the most sensate choice, but it was the right one. And his only wish was that his death would come faster.

By the feel of it, it may be over soon. The pain became unbearable. He looked down to see Sage, right in front of him, holding him in the air by the power of that cursed Staff. Tom could almost hear what the bastard was thinking.

_It’s over, kid._

He was right. It was over.

Or that’s what he thought before an object came flying into his field of view and hit Sage right in the face. The man felt back on the floor, stopping his assault immediately. Tom felt heavily on the ground and thanked the Gods (whoever was listening) that it was all over.

He looked up to see Ed helping Sage on his feet. On the floor next to them laid a solitary boot, yet it had the air of a legendary weapon.

“Who the hell threw this thing”? said Ed, picking the boot off the floor, “Who did this?!”

A girl with long blue hair jumped forward; and yes, she only had one boot.

“It was me you big fat jerk! Come and get me!”

“Get over here!” Ed went straight to Not-Sam and began what looked more like a comedy routine than a chase.

While everyone was busy looking at the scene, Tom saw, out of the corner of his eyes, a shape running at top speed. Only when she was right in front of Sage, he noticed it was Jackie. She body-slammed Sage so hard he felt again on the floor again. But this time the Staff had escaped his hand and was flying in the air where Jackie caught it.

Welding it as a hammer, Jackie raised it as high as she could and then smashed it against the floor with a sharp crash. A wave of magical static flew across the room and made Tom’s arms tingle. Yet, the staff’s crystal hasn’t break.

 _Just one more,_ Jackie thought as she raised the Staff once again.

As she was about to drop it, a hard pain hit her back. She landed on the floor and the staff flew away.

“You insolent bastard!” yelled Sage as he put his foot on Jackie’s neck.

The Staff made a spinning trajectory in the air.

Sage put all his weight on the girl’s neck, cutting her air. She was about to pass out.

The Staff was losing height…

Sage laughed roared in her hears…

Jackie’s world turned black…

**CRACK!**

Silence. Jackie breathed again as the weight receded. Everyone’s eyes were fixated on the Staff.

It had landed right on the crystal. It cracked again and again, before a loud bang and a blinding light filled the room. When it dissipated, the air felt different. Cleaner, sort of.

Tom felt the effect immediately. A sharp electricity covered his body, but it didn’t hurt him. It tickled a little though. The chains moved, filled once again with life, except that now they untangled from his hand and felt on the floor. They dissipated into blood and dried up very fast.

To Tom, it felt like taking a cold shower after a long hot day. He felt reinvigorated, happy even! Around his arms, there were marks where the chains used to be. But nevertheless he could feel his powers coming back; the energy, the suffering of all the souls in the Underworld were flowing back at him, filling him. Sure, he was still weak and didn’t have access to  _all_  his powers… but half of it was better than nothing.

He searched Jackie’s eyes in the crowd. Sage was still over her. He couldn’t figure out her expression, but her voice was made of  _fire_.

“What are you waiting for? Tear them apart!” she yelled.

 _What a girl!_ Tom thought _. If we survive this, I need to buy her an ice cream or something. But for now…_

Tom did the demon equivalent of what “dipping down” is for Mewmans; he reached deep inside himself, not for pure magical power, but for the rage of all the souls that were in the Underworld. He stood up, feeling like a giant. The flames of the Styx were flowing in his veins. All he had to do was to bring them outside.

“So you guys like to hurt others?” he said in a resounding voice.

The room trembled and shook, as if trying to become bigger to hold all of Tom’s power.

“You think you could hurt me?!  **YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHAT PAIN IS LIKE?! YOU HAVE NO IDEA! BUT YOU.WILL.LEARN!** ”

Jackie watched with morbid satisfaction how Tom raised himself into the air, using no apparent force except his own magic. His voice had turned demonic again, and his body was engulfed by flames, turning the air around him dense and hot ( _Heh, ‘hot’_ ). He spun around himself, sending the fire everywhere. But the flames didn’t felt into the ground or the heads of the terrified spectators: they flew around Tom and took the look of birds of some kind. They danced around him and screeched terribly.

It was horrifying to watch. And yet, Jackie wasn’t afraid.

It was  _their_  turn to be scared.

The Birds made a descending orbit; they ignored the kids and instead felt on the other side on the room, where the cult was. The first one went out in glory: it landed right in Sage head, consuming him in flames and giving Jackie the chance to escape.

She was feeling like actual crap: her nose was broken in pieces, her throat was so hurt she couldn’t even swallow, she had a marching band inside her skull and she was this close to vomit thanks to the smell of her own blood and the fire around. Still, she mustered enough energy to stand up and ran to the other side of the room.

She turned around just the moment Sage stood up.

He was something out of a fricking nightmare. A shadow covered in flames with two white soulless orbs where his eyes should have been, and a perpetual plastic grin on his face. He ripped his tunic apart like an old skin and tossed it on the ground to burn out. He was covered head to toe with armor made out of the darkest metal Jackie had ever seen, likely the same as the black swords. If she had seen it in a movie she would have thought it looked cool. Real life wasn’t cool. It sucked.

Sage produced a sword out of his back and spoke with a voice fitting of a general. “What are you morons waiting for? Kill them all!”

The cultists looked at each other, asking themselves who they were afraid of more: a certain death at Tom’s hands, or at Sage’s.

Speaking of Tom, he had extinguished the flames around his body, which in turn stopped his floating. He looked eyes with Jackie.

“Quick, get everyone out. Pronto!”

“But what will you-“

She couldn’t finish her sentence: Tom was already running in Sage direction, and he in turn was running towards the boy.

Tom made a quick memory of the family’s sword, and with a swift hand motion it appeared in his hands, just in time to clash against Sage own black sword.

Seeing their Leader face to face with the demon prince must have revive the guts of the Cult, because they charged at one anonymous scream of “Get them!”. They wielded their swords, axes, torches, daggers and one occasional shoe as weapons, and they were running to the center of the room. Right were Jackie was.

 _Get everyone out_ , Jackie repeated in her head and so was her intention. But when she turned around she saw the teens charging to the center too. And they were leaded by Not-Sam, wielding the black sword like some sort of war flag!

On one side, the cult was coming. On the other side, the teens. Jackie ran to the wall and took cover.

When both sides clashed, hell unleashed. Yelling of pains mixed with the sound of weapons clashing, war cries and curses, the magical feeling of electricity and the fire spreading out. It was madness!

And in the center of it all, Sage and Tom, giving everything they had to destroy eachother.

Tom turned to the side, barely dodging a stab. “An anti-magic armor? Really? Can you be more of a coward?”

He gave a slash that Sage evaded. “I am always ready for everything kid.”

Sage dropped his sword on Tom’s head. The demon blocked it.

“Ah, that’s good. You must be ready to  **die** , then.”

Tom returned the attack. So focused they were in their duel, they were clueless to the chaos around.

The battle was pretty even, but the teens seemed to be gaining terrain, thanks to their strength fuelled by anger. They fought with everything they had: punches, kicks, bites, whatever. Some teens had been smart and picked the weapons dropped by their enemies.

Of course, the Red Hand was also fighting with rage; but they were also broken in spirit: Jackie’s speech about the unfortunate truth of the situation had actually got to them, and what was supposed to be an easy victory was turning into a failure. The fire birds helped too, of course. Occasionally they would spit flames on the head of an unfortunate acolyte, taking them out of combat and spreading the fire. The heat was increasing as the flames reached the walls, consuming the curtains, the columns, the portraits…

And on a corner there was Jackie, trying to make herself small. She saw the exit at the other side of the room. Would it be smart to make a run for it? Probably not. And yet, that’s what she did, because doing a stupid thing was better than waiting. 

She stood up and ran, doing her best to avoid the errant attacks. At this point everyone was an enemy, even for the kids. She could give just a few steps when a strong punch on her side sent her to the floor. She looked up just in time to see an acolyte about to step on her. Jackie responded with an elbow to his side, throwing him out of balance, and then pushing him against the wall. She ran, trying to put some distance between her and her enemy; which was a problem when there are enemies all around. Now would be a good time to have the pocket knife, but looking for it in the chaos was a no-go. The chase was over when a ball of flame landed on the man and put him out of the fight.

 _God, I am gonna sleep forever when this is over,_  Jackie thought, although there was a good chance those dreams became nightmares.

For the looks of it, the battle might not last much longer. The cult members were losing ground very fast, terrified by Tom’s powers and the strange turn of events. Now they were spending the time running from and dodging the attack of the teens, who were feeling rather victorious.

Not all of the kids were lucky to not be hurt, however. Jackie saw a girl on the floor next to her. She was alive, but she was lying on a puddle of her own blood, and was getting increasable pale.

Jackie had to get help, and it has to be  _now_.

With her new purpose, she searched for Tom in the chaos. She found him still battling Sage, each one trying to hurt or disarm his opponent. She reached them just the moment Sage made a swift slash and made Tom threw his sword. Jackie didn’t thought about it: she ran to them and give her best imitation of a flying kick to Sage spine, giving Tom time to respond. He punched Sage in the face strong enough to loosen his mask. Jackie could look at his lizard face from up close this time.

And her reaction was to slap him, decided to not gave him a chance to recover. Tom thought the same and punched him straight in the nose, following it by a gut punch, and concluding with a roundhouse kick so epic it deserved its own movie. The kick threw Sage against the nearest column, crashing on it.

Tom and Jackie gave a few steps forward. Sage looked knocked out for real. Relief washed over the two kids. That’s when another voice, which Jackie recognized as Sister Hera’s, pierced the air.

“To Hell with them! Everybody get out!”

That was the signal. The sounds of war and yells of pain were replaced by the frenetic steps of the Red Hand, or what was left of it, as they were retreating outside. Jackie and Tom looked at each other. They were tired and broken, but when a shared thought crossed their minds, they smiled.

“We did it Tom! We beat them!” said Jackie.

“We did?” Tom said in disbelief, “We actually did! Hell yeah!”

The kids high-fived so hard it hurt their hands, but it was worth it.

“Now let-let’s get the hell out of here,“ said Tom

They were so distracted they didn’t see the punch until it was too late. Tom felt on his knees. He tried to get up but a black chain made of anti-magic metal tangled around his neck, burning him and cutting his air. The one holding the chains was no other than Ed, his face soaked in blood and with a malign expression.

“Let him go you-“ Jackie got her words cut in half.

She didn’t get to make step forward when a cold pain paralyzed her. She looked down to see the edge of a sword piercing her stomach.

When it retreated she felt on the ground. All her strength had abandoned her. She saw Tom panicked expression became furious. He freed himself from Ed’s grasp, throwing the boy back. A glimpse of hope took over her. Maybe he could rescue her after all…

She lost it when the cold sword was pressed against her neck. After that, there was only darkness.

At least to her. Tom had to watch how her partner got her neck slashed right in front of him, all too fast to prevent it. But that wasn’t the worst part; It was her look. She had looked Tom right in the eyes. She begged him to do something, to save her… And he couldn’t. Sage was staring at Tom too, the blood still warm on his sword. In his eyes there was nothing; just a hole so deep only hate could live in it.

 **Good**. That was exactly what Tom was feeling for him now.

“It’s a shame right? She was so pretty,” Ed whispered in his ear.

Tom breathed heavily, trying to keep his head cold. He stood up; his hands wet with Jackie’s blood, already piling on the floor.

“What, are you upset? Well guess what: this is all your f-“

Tom didn’t bother to look at him as he jabbed him. Ed flew so far he landed in a pile of fire. His screams filled the room.

But Tom wasn’t hearing. He was staring at Sage, waiting. The old man was smart enough to not gloat on what he had done. Which was good, because Tom was so full of bile he could barely think. And right now, he had to concentrate.

Tom waited until Sage charged at him, his sword ready for the final strike. Just like before, Tom called the powers inside him. The rage, hate and sorrow of all the cursed souls. All the energy he could call in his weakened state, he called to it. And when Sage was in front of him, Tom released it.

He raised his hand and unleashed everything the Underworld could throw at his enemies. Thousands of years of souls suffering in the underworld, released in a wave of something that wasn’t even fire. It was heat. Pure dawn-of-a-star energy.

When there was no more energy to use, Tom came back to his senses. His anger was not gone, but it was subdued, at least for now. And Sage? He was lying on the floor; His anti-magic armor had protected him only so far: half of his body was consumed by the heat, and only burned flesh and bone was left. He still lived, of course, because that was Tom’s luck. But he didn’t care about that now.

Tom evaded Sage body and knelt next to Jackie. She was covered head to toe in blood. Only now Tom had realized she was wearing a blue dress, because it was red soaked.

He felt a stab of pain when he closed Jackie’s eyes.  _Damn it! Hold it together!_ It was not the first time he had lost someone, and yet he felt completely hollow. But he didn’t matter now, nor his feelings, nor… He promised to be there for her and he will.

So he stayed there, as the few people that were left behind were leaving, and the fire was engulfing the building. Tom stayed there next to Jackie’s body. Waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> REMEMBER.
> 
> NEXT CHAPTER, FINAL CHAPTER!


	6. Harvest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, i know i did said this was gonna be THE last chapter. But i decided this should be the last chapter PLUS a small epilogue.
> 
> It was mostly a matter of the last bit not fitting with the rest of the chapter so i made it into another part.
> 
> BUT I AM GOING TO POST IT NOW. This fic ends TODAY.

Jackie woke up to a world of blue. Or not ‘blue’ exactly, more like ‘blue-ish colored’; like looking through cyan colored glasses. She waited for the memories to flood back to her. She moved a bit and was surprised to discover her backside didn’t hurt anymore. Nor her neck or nose. In fact when she stood up she was feeling better than she ever felt before. Light. Calm.

Tom stood up when she did. Funny; he wasn’t blue colored like the rest of the world.

“Hey Jackie,” he said with a heavy voice.

“’Sup Tom. Are you alright?”

The demon’s face was gloomy and only got worse after she spoke. “Yeah I-I am fine.”

“Good. I was worried about you,” she looked around, “What happened? Sage?”

“Oh, he is right there on the floor.”

Jackie looked at Sage’s body. She thought Tom must have done quite a number on him because he looked like a vaguely shaped blue and black lump.

“Is he-“

“No, no. He is fine,” said Tom in a rush, “Or not ‘fine’ but h-he will live. He is lucky like that.”

Jackie nodded. She knew she should have felt uncomfortable, having a still alive and untied Sage next to her. Or maybe she should have been worried with how Sage’s life or death was simply trivial to her now. But none of those things mattered now.

“And Ed?”

Tom put a thinking face. “Oh, you mean Sage’s kid? Last I see of him he was hugging a pillar of fire,” he looked around the room.

Jackie did the same. The fire had disappeared and only black ashes and dead bodies remained.

“He must be around,” said Tom, ”Or what’s lets of him. But he won’t be a problem anymore, don’t worry.”

“I am not. Actually I am feeling pretty great,” said Jackie, “Especially because we are both alright. Thanks for saving me.”

Tom said nothing.

“How did you do it, by the way? I can’t remember anything.”

“I didn’t,” said Tom.

“What do you mean?” said Jackie.

Tom looked down. He couldn’t even speak right now. It didn’t take long to Jackie to sum two and two.

“I didn’t make it, did I?” she said, “I am-“

“Dead?” said Tom in a rush, as if hating that word. “Yeah, you are. I-I am sorry.”

Jackie tried to make some sense of all that was happening.

“If I died, how am I here with you now?”

“You are a spirit now,” said Tom, and then he realized he might need to elaborate. “You are not a ghost, or a zombie or anything. Your soul is just waiting to be collected. Your body is there at the wall. Don’t worry, it’s safe.”

Tom put a hand on his mouth . “I mean it’s not safe. I mean it is but what I mean is its whole,” he facepalmed himself, “or not whole it’s just… Look, it’s right over there, alright?”

Jackie followed the direction Tom pointed at. On the floor there was a large blood puddle. From it there was a trail of blood splattered on the floor that ended on the wall. That’s where Jackie’s body was. It looked bad, objectively speaking. There was a large open wound on her stomach, visible through the slashed and bloodied cloth of her dress. But the worst wound was the one on her neck, deeper and clearly lethal, exposing the inside of her throat. Comparing to this, her face wasn’t so harmed. Her nose was destroyed, as she had thought but ignoring that she had a neutral expression on her face. Peaceful even.

“Did you close my eyes?” asked Jackie.

“Yep,” said Tom.

“Thanks, that was nice.”

Everything made sense to Jackie now. She had heard once that, when you die, you become completely rational, because your emotions come from your physical body, your hormones and brain chemistry and all that. Without it, you are devoid of feelings. Free. That whole thing always seemed like made up bologna to Jackie. But not anymore.

With this in mind, she gave the world a new look. Besides the new tint, the air of the spirit world felt different. Colder and cleaner, like mountain breeze. She saw other people were there too; some teens and a few cultists.

“And they are like me?” said Jackie as she pointed at the people who looked at the world with newfound peace.

“Yes they are… They died too,“ said Tom.

There were other creatures too: strange shadows that walked around franticly. She soon understood those were living people, desperately trying to reach the exit in the middle of the death. That why she had barely recognized Sage before.

_It’s odd_ , she thought,  _the dead people I can see them perfectly fine, but the living look like weird shadows._

Everyone except Tom. He looked exactly as before. Well, he did looked _blue_ , but in an emotional way.

 “Jackie, I-” Tom tried to stay calm, but he broke up as soon as he opened his mouth, ”Oh Gods I am so sorry! I am sorry for everything. For you, for these people... If I hasn’t leave you alone-“

“I don’t know what would have happened,” Jackie interrupted, “Maybe we both would have died or maybe just me. But I don’t think we could have leave unhurt. We saved as many as we could and that’s fine.”

“But I should have-“

“You didn’t have to come back for me,” she proceeded, “not really. But I am glad you did. I am happy I meet you.”

Tom circled through many emotions, all of them strange to Jackie, until he turned his face away. She could hear him gasping and mumbling to himself. Jackie knew he did that so she wouldn’t see him cry, but she couldn’t get why. After everything they went through together, it just felt unnecessary. They were way beyond the point of embarrassment.

“I wish I knew what to say to make you feel better,” said Jackie with cold honesty. Tom was a good person, despite everything. He deserved to be alright.

He gasped and cleaned his face with his t-shirt. When he turned around his face was dry, but his eyes were red.

“Well m-maybe it won’t be that bad,” he said as he cleaned his nose with the back of his hand, “I mean obviously dying sucks. But the Underworld is-is not as bad as people say. Hot, but mostly humid. A-and you could make a new life there, really, even if not the best life. And I-I would be around you if you ever need me. I’ll be with you. It’s the least I can do.”

Tom reached to touch her, but predictably his hand went through her body.

“Uh hold on,” Tom extended his hand palms-up to Jackie, “Deal?”

Yeah, he is good despite everything. She put her hand, palm down, on top of Tom’s.

“Deal,” she said and saw Tom face lightened up a bit.

They stood side by side in a way that, has Jackie been alive and with feelings, she would have felt awkward. Anything they could say at this point would be insignificant.

“So, what happens now?” said Jackie.

“Oh, we are just waiting for the reapers. They are the ones who take the souls of the dead to the Underworld,” said Tom.

“’Reapers?’ So there is more than one?” asked Jackie

“With the overpopulation in the Universe? They are a whole corporation.”

“Ah, alright.” 

“They should be around any moment now,” said Tom.

“Ok.”

Awkward didn’t’ do justice to the indignity of that talk. They both remained in silence; Tom because he didn’t want to embarrass himself with his terrible small talk. And Jackie because she didn’t had anything else to say.

Or actually she did have something so say. A question she had been pondering about in her head –or rather her mind, since her half-decapitated head now lied on the floor. 

“You know, I have been thinking,” she said.

“I can tell. You have been staring at me for five minutes now,” said Tom with a weird laugh

Jackie didn’t realized she had been looking at him so insistently

“Remember what you said about the deal you did with Sage? The one that brought him back from the dead,” said Jackie

Tom had a bad feeling in his gut. “Yeah?”

“Would it be too late to offer the same to me?”

“ **WHAT?** ” Tom yelled before he could fully process what he had heard. “Did you go nuts on these, like, fifteen minutes after your death? “

“I don’t think so. In fact, I think I have never felt calmer in my entire life,” said Jackie.

“ **You don’t even have a life anymore!** ”

“My point exactly: I want my life back. Or you just can’t do it?”

Jackie thought that must have made Tom mad. But he wasn’t angry as much as he was  _offended_.

“Of course I can! I am a Demon Lord of the Ninth Circle of Hell. I can do whatever I want!” he said.

“So you just don’t want to,” she said.

“That is not what I said,” shouted Tom with exasperation. “All I am saying Is you don’t want this.”

“I do. I don’t want to leave yet.”

Unbelievable. It was like talking with a wall, but more annoying. Tom opened his mouth to protest but the sound of a guitar shred robbed him of words. A flash of light turned physical near their position. Its form was the one of a curtain made of pure white; turning around itself in a spinning pattern. If you looked at it constantly, you could think it was slightly anthropomorphic, like one of the acolytes wearing a tunic. Except that on the place where there should have been a face or a mask there was nothing. Just pure sickening light. It was identical to the Dead Light of Sage’s eyes, and Jackie knew there must have been a connection, even if she didn’t understand what. The creature was holding something in its ‘hand’: a large Scythe.

“Are they-“

“Reapers,” said Tom, finishing Jackie’s sentence.

The reaper floated to one of the deceased teenagers. Although ‘floating’ is just a word. It actually looked like it was still in the air and darkness and space moved aside around him. It exchanged a few word with the young boy, after which he raised his scythe tall in the air and dropped it on the boy’s head. He turned into white smoke. Once the smoke faded away, the Reaper banished in a literal flash.

“I-it doesn’t hurt, don’t worry,” said Tom, even though Jackie wasn’t scared, “It will be over soon.”

“I am not ready to go,” said Jackie.

“Tough luck. It’s not-it’s not your call.”

“You are right, it’s yours.”

Another reaper flashed in (or perhaps it was the same one). He repeated the process, this time with a cultist soul.

“You have no idea what you are asking me to do,” said Tom with diminished patience, “If I save you, you are gonna be in debt to me for your whole life.”

“That doesn’t sound like it’ll hurt,” said Jackie.

“Of course it will!” Tom breathed fire as he spoke, “Didn’t you hear what Sage said? You will be tied to me forever, even after your natural death. Your soul will be mine to-to order you around. You will have to do everything I commanded!”

“Will you command me to do things?” she asked.

Tom lost his words. “I… no, b-but that’s beside the point!”

Another guitar shred. Another reaper. Another soul gone.

“Also I thought you said everyone goes to the Underworld,” disputed Jackie.

“ **YES! FOR A WHILE!** ” Tom had to bite his lips as to not turn the building on fire again, “That’s how it works: people do their time and then they  _go_. Ascend and reincarnate.  That’s the circle of fucking life! If you sell your soul to me, you are  _out_  the circle. Finite. Forever. You’ll spend a whole eternity serving on the Underworld.”

Another reaper. They were running out of time.

“You will live surrounded by evil demons. And when I am gone, you will still be there, serving whoever wimpy royal idiot is on top on you on the totem. Forever and ever! You will be there until hell freezes over -and trust me on this Jackie, I-It will not be a gentle winter!”

Tom made a motion to grab Jackie by the shoulders, stopping only when he realized she was still incorporeal. He stared at the deepness of her eyes.

“I am begging you Jackie,” pleaded Tom, “J-just reconsider it for more than  _one_  second, please.”

And Jackie did so. She stopped and thought. Seriously, deeply, mind-digging thought what she wanted. The room was empty except for them now.

It was weird to think everything with pure logic. On one hand, there was a voice on her mind that said ‘This is not worth it’. We all die right? No escape. Tom said so. And she already died so the ugly part is over. The next part was a momentary life in Hell and then a guaranteed reincarnation; being reborn in Earth fresh as new (no pun intended). Accepting the ‘new life deal’ would just extend the inevitable. She would suffer again, she would felt all the pain she had endured today, she would live with the knowledge of the kids she couldn’t save. She would felt bad again for having broke up with Marco -which going back to it wasn’t that much of a deal, but it’s what ignited this whole mess. And for what she could gather having a soulless live felt more like a punishment than a price. And all of this leaving the fact that she would have to live forever on the Underworld serving foul demons.

There was no doubt that NOT accepting the deal was the most logical choice.

However, there was another voice inside Jackie; one that worked with the same logic, but going to the opposite direction. This one was saying ‘Ok, fair enough. But here is my counterargument…’ One of them was louder than the other, and for good or ill, Jackie was going to listen to it.

“I made my choice,” said Jackie.

Tom breathed in rushed relief. “Good.”

“I want to do it,” she said, “I want a new life and I am willing to pay the price.”

The boy was in utter disbelief as Jackie words echoed in his mind.

“But-but why?” this was all he could muster.

When Jackie didn’t answer, he pressured.

“Why would you want something like that? I mean I get why someone like Sage could accept that, he is a freak. But you… I am not offering powers, y-you know that. Nor I offer status, money, wisdom, not even -Gods forbid-  _happiness_. Just this,” he emphasized the burned room bursting with dead they were standing in. “Pain. Then dead and damnation. This is all I have. It’s all I am.”

Tom hasn’t intended to get so personal but just as everything this night, that was out of his control.

“So tell me… why?”

That was a good speech. Unfortunately, Jackie only answer was a simple shrug.

“I just don’t want any of that. I just want to keep being Jackie,” she said as if she had dropped a Universal Truth.

She realized it wasn’t when the demon imploded in flames.

“ **You didn’t hear anything I just said!** ” Tom yelled as his face distorted and shifted, turning into the material of Nightmares.

Not that Jackie cared. She didn’t felt anything.

“I am sorry,” she offered.

“ **No you are not! You don’t even care!** ” the flames around Tom danced as he spoke, reaching Jackie but not touching her. “ **You are. The most. Exasperating girl I have ever meet! You are more stubborn than Star. You are more stubborn than Marco even! HOW is that even possible? Well you know what? We are gonna sit here and wait until you are Collected. PERIOD!** ”

He turned around and faced the other side. He knew he was acting like a spoiled child and  _fuck it to Hell_  if he cared. He had no intention to keep up this discussion and risk hurting Jackie’s feelings, not more than he had intention in accepting that deal.

Jackie thought fast about what she could say to make him change his mind. The answer came back to her as she remembered their first encounter.

“Tom, look at your hand,” she ordered.

He did so. Slowly the flames of his body disappeared as fear took over him. The cross that sealed their first deal was still on his right hand. It shined like the midday sun.

“Get me out of here Tom. You promised.”

Tom’s neck made like a whip. She was deadly serious about this! But well, she has been deadly serious about everything since her decease. It’s funny but Tom hasn’t thought their old deal was still in effect after Jackie’s death. Hell, maybe it wasn’t! But by invoking it, Jackie has made it real again, forcing him to complain.

“You know I-I gotta stop making deals with you humans,” said Tom in a light voice, “You specially. You are gonna be the end of me.”

“Probably,” said Jackie.

Tom lost himself to laughter. “We are  _so_  gonna regret this in the morning!”

“Most certainly.”

The boy laughed until he didn’t had any more in him. Then he put his business face.

_No turning back_ , thought Tom.

His hand ignited in blue fire. He extended it to Jackie.

“ **It’s a deal** ,” he sentenced. 

Jackie had the certainty that if she reached for Tom’s hand now she will touch him. She extended her arm and went for it.

A guitar shred was heard. A white tunic got in the middle of them.

“ _ **JACKIE LYNN THOMAS**_ ,” said the Reaper with a monotone voice that sounded like a violin being smashed next to a speaker in a soundproof room.

Jackie tilted her head up and there it was. The Dead Light; emanating from inside the gap where the Reaper’s face should have been. I made her felt like she had been standing in a empty room for days. Like watching a pile of ashes for hours. Like losing your best friend.

“ _ **ARE YOU READY TO PASS AWAY?**_ ” the Reaper’s voice was undeniable.

Tom tried to deny it, however, by getting between him and Jackie.

“Now just wait a minute,” said Tom “I was going to make a deal with her so-“

“ _ **NOT THIS TIME, LUCITOR**_ ” the Reaper put his cloak so close to Tom’s face the boy could almost smell him. “ _ **SHE IS MINE. TO. HARVEST.**_ ”

“It would have been better if it were ‘she is mine to reap’” Jackie offered.

Tom grunted. “Now is not the moment to-“

He was cut out by the Reaper pushing him to the side. He was awfully strong for being a big blanket. The Reaper rose in the air; his cloak tangling around the gigantic scythe and raising it until it covered all of Jackie’s sight. A strange defense mechanism activated inside her; one not born out of hormones and adrenaline, but out of the simple rationalization that she needed to get away from that fucking scythe.

When the weapon felt down she jumped, barely dodging it. The scythe was so sharp Jackie could hear the air being cut in half.

“ _ **STAY STILL,**_ ” said the Reaper as he raised his weapon again.

He was stopped by Tom body slamming him with all of his demonic strength. The Reaper made like a plastic bag and flew several feet away.

Tom extended his hand to Jackie. “Shake it, or it won’t be official!”

Jackie reached to take it. She was close… But the Reaper was faster. With supernatural speed he reappeared next to the kids and shoved Tom into the ground. The boy fought, but the cloak of the Reaper moved like a snake; it was impossible to grab the damned thing, much less to take it off him! His struggled was over when the cloak entangled around his members like a vine. Tom lost contact with the ground and then was threw across the room, almost into the exit hallway but missing it by an inch and hitting a marble column. Hard.

“Son of a b-“ a half burnt portrait felt heavy on Tom’s head, momentarily blinding him.

While Tom was struggling with the old man’s painting on his head, the Reaper turned to face Jackie. She ran to meet the monster, beating all logic. Lacking emotions was very helpful in a situation like that; it’s easier to make good choices without them. Otherwise she would have been too scared to reason that once the Reaper flew to her at terminal speed and raised his Scythe to decapitate her, all she needed to do was to slide under the gigantic creature. As the body of the Reaper passed on top on her missing her head by a mile, a familiar instinct took over her. Skating. That’s what it reminded her of.

The scythe of the Reaper landed and crashed into the ground, getting stuck in a crack. How it was possible for an immaterial weapon to get stuck in the ground, she didn’t know. Maybe by the same law that allowed her spiritual ‘body’ to move.

Meanwhile Tom has torn to pieces the portrait, freeing his sight.

“Aha! Oh-“ he said as he saw Jackie running to him. But that was not the reason for the ‘Oh.’

It was because the Reaper has unstuck his scythe! His pursuit Jackie at ungodly speed. Tom had to think fast!

“Duck!” he yelled and threw a big fireball.

Jackie did as ordered, dodging the magical fire, which impacted on the Reaper’s ‘head’. The creature was stunted but only momentarily. There was no time to lose! Tom did something he saw in a comic once: he jumped in the air and ignited his hands and feet, allowing him to fly propelled by fire.

“Your hand, quick!” shouted Tom and extended his arm to the girl.

Jackie ran to meet him, but behind her the Reaper had recovered. He gave chase to the girl; his Dead Light casting a shadow which grew bigger the closer he was to her.

“Jackie!” yelled Tom in desperation.

She extended her arm.

The Reaper raised his scythe.

A loud guitar shred pierced the air.

* * *

 The world dissapeared in a blink, as Jackie entered a place of pure white nothingness. She was floating, but couldn’t see where she was, if she even was somewhere to begin with. She didn’t even know if she existed. She was just there.

She was not alone however. Thousands, millions of deep red eyes were looking at her –piercing her with their endless gaze. The creatures whose eyes belonged to where speaking in impossible tongues. They were judging her.

A tail like appendage  extended in her direction. It tangled around her right arm like a chain, holding her tight. A second one did the same with her left arm. And two others tied her legs. A final one appeared but it looked different. It was made of strings; It almost looked like an arm.

It pierced Jackie’s chest and with brutal efficiency tore her heart out of her chest. Her heart was more a ball of fire and light than an organ. In any case, Jackie felt lighter once it was out. All the chains receded, including the arm with her heart, to the giant mass of eyes. The eyes seemed to fade away, as if going into the opposite direction. But it was actually her the one going away. She was falling, but in practice it felt like she was rising. She felt and felt through endless darkness.

And then she landed with a crash.

* * *

 Jackie opened her eyes. She was back on the  _blue-ish_  world that was Earth, on the Fathers’ room and with Tom in front of her, breathing heavily. Her hand was intertwined with Tom’s. They had made it. The blue fire from Tom’s hands expanded to her body, swallowing her up entirely. It was like being covered with a warm blanket.

“You alright?” Tom asked.

Jackie didn’t get what he meant until she followed his gaze. The Reaper’s scythe had pierced her stomach, without causing her any harm.

“ _ **NO,**_ ” said the Reaper, with the voice of a doll trying to imitate anger.

He slashed Jackie’s form time and time, and every time her silhouette faltered and faded, only to be back to normal mere seconds later.

“Sorry Bob, she is  **mine** ,” proclaimed Tom, “Better luck next time bud.”

The Reaper put his face at inches from Tom’s. There was something almost human in the way he ‘stared’ at the boy.

“ _ **CURSE YOU TEN TIMES, LUCITOR. I’LL FILE A COMPLAIN WITH THE UNION, YOU’LL SEE,**_ “ said the Reaper.

Tom buffed. “Yeah, I have heard from them before. Say hi to Carol and the kids for me, alright?”

“ _ **NEVER.**_ ”

And with that final declaration the Reaper flashed away with a guitar shred following him close.

“Friend of yours?” asked Jackie.

“Old friend from my mom. He is kind of like a weird uncle. Sometime we go visit his family for New Year’s Eve,” said Tom as if recalling bad times. “That’s gonna be awkward now.”

The kids were quiet after. They were tired both in mind and body. The flames surrounding Jackie’s body moved with hypnotic autonomy.

“So what happens now?” said Jackie.

“Mmh? Oh, right…” Tom looked down and scratched his neck, as do people who are about to deliver bad news. “Y-you might want to clench your teeth. This next part is going to  _suck_.”

Before Jackie could say anything, Tom snapped his fingers loudly.

* * *

If Jackie has woke up before feeling refreshed and calm, now she was heavy as lead and with a bitch of a pain. She couldn’t close her eyes after opening them so the light was blinding her. The control of her facial muscles came back slowly, just as the images became clearer.

Her emotions flowed back all at once when she looked at the massive wound cutting her belly in half. She tried to scream but the wound on her throat robbed her of any word. She was lying against the wall where Tom had left her. He had bothered to put a bunch of cloth together to make a makeshift bed, under which was a puddle of her own blood.

Said blood wasn’t cold though but warm, almost hot. It moved and vibrated as if coming back to life. And then like a backwards sink, the blood flowed back, drop by drop, to Jackie’s body. That’s when the pain came back –as if Sage sword were slashing her again, one time after another. She was burning hot, like a fireball exploding inside her and expanding. But the wound was becoming smaller and closing. She was healing! By some cruel irony the wound on her throat healed first, allowing Jackie to howl in pain.

Only when the wound had burn itself close and the pain had finished Jackie stopped her shrieks. Tom was holding her in place, likely to prevent her to try jumping out of her own body. He was mumbling soothing words that she didn’t hear.

She pushed him aside gently and sat down against the wall. The wounds had burnt entirely. The blood was gone too. The only proof of her decease was the horizontal cut of her dress and a nasty scar on her belly and neck.

She found Tom’s sorrowful eyes; the hellish fire in them had been replaced by something painfully human.

“I am sorry,” said Tom in a broken voice, “I told you It was gonna suck.”

That’s the moment Jackie gave herself to crying. She cried for Ed, for being such an asshole and bring her here. For Sage, Cat and the rest of the Red Hand –good for nothing butchers and killers. For Star and Marco for going away, leaving her alone to defend her. For Tom, for accepting the deal for her soul.

But mostly she cried for herself. For her mistakes. She gave everything she had and still she failed.

She cried herself dry, as she announced her hate to the world. Tom waited until Jackie tired herself out, and when they heard the police sirens, he carried her outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> KEEP READING!


	7. Epilogue: A Brand New Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are, at the end...

Is interesting how certain events can disrupt your time perception. Maybe there is some truth in that saying that time goes faster when you are having a good time and slower when you are feeling stressed –and that’s something Jackie knew about. The proof was there: once she stepped outside the building she was greeted by the fading stars. It was 5:30 AM Sunday. She came to the party at 10 PM Saturday. She was in that hellhole of a basement for little more than 7 hours –and she suspected she spent most of that time passed out in the floor.

Not that it was a small amount of time. It was quite a lot. It just felt longer when she was running for her life and fighting psychopathic cult members. Now that she was outside, the rest of the world came back to existence as did its entire people. Some of them must be waking up just now, aliens to what has transpired in that building. A stab of envy pierced her as she thought that.

No sooner she stepped outside when the cops intercepted her. By the looks of her clothes they deduced she was a victim. It took a little longer to convince them that Tom was innocent of anything –which was ridiculous because he was the one carrying her outside! Horns, tails and what not aside, how could they thought he had hurt her?

After the humor calmed down, a policewoman gave Jackie a brief interrogation. Jackie said that she was abducted by a child murdering cult and left it at that. She wasn’t sure this woman could handle a whole talk about demons and reapers and deals with the Devil. The policewoman was nice enough though. She explained to Jackie how a patrol car was policing the area when a ‘crazy loon in a cat tunic’ stopped them and directed them to the house. The cops took him to the house in the car, but when they stopped to ask for reinforcements he ‘ran like a bitch outta hell’ and disappeared.

That was Cat, obviously.  Jackie was conflicted. On one hand, Cat had helped them many times. On the other, he has been mere seconds away to kill her. It happened as she has promised: They got out of there alive –sort of- and Cat got to walk away free of consequences. He made good to his end of the deal and Jackie to hers. Nothing more.

She wasn’t the only one who made it thought. All around were many ambulances with doctors mending the surviving kids. Half of the snatched kids were killed in the ritual. And from that half, another half was killed in battle. Jackie was glad to see Not-Sam among them. The girl greeted Jackie with a wink and a soldier’s salute, addressing her both as a friend and –even stranger, as a  _leader_. Jackie did want to say something to her, but what exactly? ‘Hey, I am glad you didn’t die. That was some weird crap uh? Also I never asked your name.’ No. Jackie simply returned Not-Sam’s salute. She would probably catch the girl around the neighborhood another day. They will chat then.

The remnants of the Red Hand were there too; many of them were being escorted by a police officer or already in one of the many police cars and vans. All of them were unmasked. It was bizarre. Until that moment Jackie could see them only as members of the terrible cult they were part of. Not as people but as creatures from nightmares. Monsters. Now she saw them as they really were. Killers. Simple men and women. The only one she didn’t saw was Ed. He might have died, but Jackie had the feeling that was not the case.

Her thoughts abandoned her when Tom came running to her. He was carrying something in his hands. Jackie smiled weakly at him and lent him a space on the ambulance next to her.

“How are you holding up?” asked Tom, straight to the point.

Jackie looked down to the cup of tea the cops had given her. It was mostly tasteless brown water but it was warm. They had provided her with blanket too for that same purpose. She knew for certain her wounds were fully healed –she had touched the scar around her neck as soon as she was alone. Still, she was in so much pain that the she knew the moment she felt on a bed she would sleep until Hell freezes over –which apparently was less an expression and more of a certainty.

She was not alright, not even a little. But she was going to be, she  _knew_  that. Not now and not tomorrow, but as long as she lived she was gonna be fine. She just needed a tomorrow to look forward to.

“It just pain,” said Jackie calmly, “I’ll live.”

They weight of that expression felt heavy on the kids. Jackie sipped her tea again. Yep, still as disgusting as five minutes ago. She gave Tom a good look up and down. He looked as tired as her, maybe more. His arms were covered by deep scars, a memory of the Restraining Spell.

“And how are you doing?” asked Jackie.

“Me? Fantastic!” said Tom in a rush and then took it back. “No, that’s a lie. Sorry. I am actually terrible b-but I’ll live. Or not like ‘live’ like you do. I am undead. Kind of? Whatever the point is I’ll keep existing so t-that’s a victory, right?”

“It is in my book,” said Jackie.

Know he knew how she felt. But again, if at this point he didn’t ‘get her’, then nobody would. The calm didn’t last however, because at that moment a pair of cops passed by, pushing an emergency bed. When they were in front of Jackie and Tom they stopped to talk with the medic in the ambulance.

Jackie’s heart jumped to her throat. Sage was in the bed. It was the first time she had laid eyes on him since the Spirit World. Half of his face had been mangled and what was left of skin was burned up; doing little to hide his skull. All eyebrows and muscles were gone, leaving only his exposed eyes. By the look of it all right side of his body has suffered the same fate. Has Tom really done all that?

“This is not over Tomas,” said Sage with a calm voice that betrayed his appearance.

Tom put an arm in front of Jackie as if shielding her from harm. Sage wasn’t looking at him after all. His dark eyes were stuck on Jackie.

“You will pay. And so will you little girl.”

He wasn’t even angry. This was just an inconvenience to him. Jackie swallowed hard and tried to bring forward any leftover valor she had.

“Maybe in forty years. Enjoy your prison time,” she said.

“I will.”

And with that the cops pushed him away and carried him in an ambulance. Jackie deflated. The tears were rolling freely now, but she couldn’t gasp or moan.

“It’s alright. You are safe now,” Tom put his arm around her shoulders. He was no longer afraid of physical contact. “He said that because you showed him right. Fuck that guy.”

He was right. Jackie knew he was. Even with all the pain and fear, Jackie had stood up to Sage, not one but twice now. They had fought and she had _survived_.

“Yeah fuck him. He has no power over me,” said Jackie, “Or you.”

Tom’s puppy smile was as bright as the day. And yet he kept staring at her in a weird way. Almost like he was trying to discover a mystery.

“Dude, what’s wrong? Do I have something on my face?” said Jackie, but Tom didn’t answer.

He didn’t have the guts to inform her that the Dead Lights, the light of the Spirit World, now shined behind her eyes. That was a long talk due for another day.

“Just looking at your smeared make up,” he lied.

“Oh, right. I must look like a freak. I don’t even have a mirror, lost it with my purse,” said Jackie.

Tom produced Jackie’s purse out of his back. “This one?”

“Yeah that’s the one! Where did you find it?”

“One of them cops gave it to me when I said I was your friend,” said Tom shyly. “It looks like the cult had everyone’s stuff locked in a closet. That cop was kind of irresponsible though. I-I mean, I could have said I was your friend and then ran away with your purse.”

Jackie scoffed. “I can’t imagine you doing that. I think rescuing damsels in distress is more of your thing.”

Tom turned as red as a cherry tomato.

“I guess they didn’t find my skateboard. Or my dad’s pocket knife,” Jackie asked.

“They didn’t say.”

Of course not. That would have been too much to ask for. Jackie opened her purse and went to her phone.

“32 missed calls from my dad!?” she shouted, and then added, “I thought they would have been more.”

“You want to call him? I can give you space-“

“No no, the cops already told him what happened. He should be here any minute now.”

Jackie found her pocket mirror and when she opened a loud gasp escaped her.

“What happened? You alright?” asked Tom.

“I look horribly!” shouted Jackie, not with rage or sadness but with humor.

She did look messed up. She was like one of those paintings of sad clowns. And that’s not to mention the rat nest that was her hair. But on the bright side, Tom’s magic had fixed her nose and eyes, so that’s something to be happy about. If only he had mended her bags too.

“I-It’s not that bad. You look…” Tom checked his mental dictionary, “Natural?”

“You are such a lousy liar!” said Jackie, “I look like the clown of ‘It!”

The boy stopped any effort to hide his laughter. “Yeah y-you kind of have the look for it.”

“I know!” said Jackie, “And you too!”

“I what?”

“You look horrible too! You look like a Hammer films’ monster!”

The boy took offense to that and wrestled Jackie for her mirror. Now it was he who yelled.

“I am a mess!” shouted Tom.

It was truth. Only now Jackie realized that Tom had been wearing eyeliner the whole time, and that now it was totally smeared.

“Uh… well whatever. I am still a handsome devil aren’t I?” said Tom.

Jackie covered her mouth.

“It’s just that I am, how did you said it? ‘Not feeling so hot right now’?”

So he did get her joke before! Except that this time he did laugh. And so did Jackie. She laughed and laughed because she was happy! She was alive. She went to literal Hell and back! And even after all that she could look at her smeared makeup and crack terrible jokes and laugh like a child.

And that gave her hope for tomorrow.

They hugged and laughed as loudly as they could. They didn’t care when people turned around to stare, nor when the cops cleared the area of injured and criminals alike. So distracted they were they didn’t notice the Blood Moon casting its red shadow on top of their heads as the first ray of sun peeked in the sky.

A new day has dawn. For both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, this was long! Well, it was for me at least.
> 
> Thanks a lot for everyone who read this fic, really. Simply posting it was a big step for me since i have away from writing for a long while. I surely will not drop it now, but it might take a while to post another thing. (And when i do it'll probably be in Spanish)
> 
> Hopefully the next thing i made will be even better than this one. 
> 
> Now i a going to bed cause i am VERY tired.


End file.
